Managing organizational identity conflict in diverse workplaces

¶ … Language

Core Beliefs

Domain Centered beliefs

Communication

The Conversation

Structuration

Identity/Self-Concept

Production and Reproduction of the Conversation

Interaction

Social Capital

Culture, Relationships and Structure

Sense making

Situational Leadership/management

Organization

Frames

Metaphors

Narratives

Structuring

Structure in and Structure out

Identity

Plasticity

One of the difficulties the manager is experiencing is that his or her business organization is experiencing an identity conflict. On one hand, in a modern commercial enterprise, the interaction of various employees must be characterized by impersonal exchanges, based upon a common culture of business. For example, when Angela goes to the Middle East, one of her responsibilities is creating a friendly working relationship with a client, not expressing her feminist or personal sexual self-concept that stands apart from that of the company she works for as an employee. But because our Western, American culture celebrates individualism, and upholds the values of pluralism, self-expression, and diversity, it is difficult for Angela and other corporate employees to put aside their self-concepts, and engage in impersonal interactions in the context of the workplace.

The problem with upholding diversity as a value, is very often 'my' diversity conflicts with 'your diversity,' or core beliefs about what is most important in life, and when an organizational culture becomes so fragmented, conflicts become personalized and politicized, rather than focus on the goals of the group. Better communication is needed for these fragmented workers to recreate a common goal. Instead of multiple identity narratives at war, a common work narrative is required.

A weekend or week of sensitivity training would be ideal, accompanied with education in how to communicate cross-culturally, rather than merely assert one's culture against the culture of another. A new language of tolerance must be generated that is spoken by all the workers, and the workers must learn a kind of plasticity of identity, so that although a Muslim woman may wear traditional dress at work, she is equipped to deal with how this may be perceived without generating hostility, and her hostile coworkers must learn how to work with people whose beliefs they disagree with personally, while they work toward a common organizational goal.

Question

Given the context of the problem, the teller could very easily misinterpret the informal comments made to her on the way out. The question at stake is communication between the sexes. Even if the improved conditions of the teller's office had nothing to do with the informal invitation, because of her identity as a female she is likely to feel that the improvements at work were connected to her performance in arenas outside of the workforce. The narratives of the consultant and the teller are thus very different, as to what was the social subtext of the conversations that took place. While ideally, individual should put aside their core beliefs about gender, and regard all workplace interactions as impersonal, often this can prove difficult, and a change in circumstances in the workplace, blended with an informal and friendly exchange afterwards can be very easily misinterpreted.