Intercultural Work RelationshipsMost everyone has or has had a job of some sort and for most people, the work place is where they experience the most diversity. You may work with people from different religions, generations, language backgrounds, ethnicity, races, and nationality. Understanding diversity is very important so organizations can move from an assimilationist perspective to a more integrative perspective. (Martin & Nakayama, 2009) Working with people of diversity may be of a challenge to some people, but it is a great benefit. Working with someone who may be different than you may be a challenge, but it could actually lead into a friendship outside of the work place.
Race, ethnicity, sexuality, language backgrounds, generations, and other factors may be reasons why it is hard from some people to work at a job. Co-workers may be unaccepting to someone who is of a different color than them, or someone who doesn't speak the same language. A younger co-worker may think that an elder may not be able to do the job as well as he/she. If all these factors weren't a problem, good relationships can be formed in the work place where everyone gets along and the business may run smoothly.
I myself, am from a very small town that didn't have much diversity, but when I went to basic military training, that all changed. We were all there to achieve the same goal and to do the same job. There were many girls from all across the United States, some of different races, ethnicity, sexuality, and even some who spoke different languages. Although it was a very harsh and stressful environment, we all accepted each other's differences to complete whatever task we had at hand. Not only did I learn a lot but to this day, I still keep in contact with a lot of the girls I met there; girls of different backgrounds than me, different race than me, different religion than me and so forth. All of these friendships that I now have with those girls first started with a work relationship.
References
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed.). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.
Having a strong and healthy intercultural work relationship is important in order to keep the work environment peaceful. There is a higher chance of diversity at work because there's a wider range of different cultures. If everyone has to accomplish the same task then it makes it easier to connect and develop intercultural work relationships.
ReplyDeleteGreat concept to focus on. Make sure you state the concept in paragraph one and cite the text book in that paragraph to provide a definition to make sure we are all on the same page.
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