In the article Cross Culture Management: Global Healthcare Workers, Kimberly Scott, highlights the importance of cross-cultural interaction and how it affects the healthcare environment. She continues by listing the challenges as well as the strategies for improving cultural diversity in a work environment. With globalization, cultures are colliding leading to the need of cultures to inspire one another for the organization to be successful. According to the author, it is impossible for an organization to succeed without putting into consideration other cultures values as employment has become more culturally diverse. Therefore, it is crucial for managers to be knowledgeable about its organization’s multicultural environment, knowing that …show more content…
However, some of the challenges that managers and workers encounter in a multicultural environment include language barriers, cross-cultural differences, and the inability of managers to revise their own culture in order to improve care. Good interpersonal skills acknowledge the difference in communication style of individuals with different backgrounds and aid in teamwork effectiveness. On top of that, managers need to be aware of the similarities and differences in cultures in order to provide better care. Lastly, managers should learn to modify their understanding to improve delivery of care in a diverse environment. Because the healthcare system is becoming more complex and dynamic, the author listed some strategies for improving cultural diversity to achieve success in a diverse cultural environment. Strategies include establishing a diversity training and recruiting, building a toolkit for intercultural competence, creating a mentoring diversity program and a positive environment. These strategies will promote employees’ satisfaction and retention thus improving hospitals outcomes. Overall, the author stated, “ without proper knowledge of cross-culture management in global healthcare, many healthcare facilities could be at risk of trailing other countries in providing effective care” (Scott, …show more content…
Effective teamwork is very crucial for the success of an organization, however, cultural differences can be sometimes challenging and create barriers to effective interdisciplinary teamwork as you deal with people with different values and beliefs. One of the challenges that managers face in a multicultural setting is to figure out the root cause of a cultural conflict and using the right strategic interventions to help the team move forward and be able to resolve future dilemmas. After conducting a research on conflict resolution, the authors discovered that managers’ ways of intervening on a dispute could either sideline importance team members or create resistance that can lead to poor team performance. Another challenge mentioned in the article was related to communication style. It was noted that communication challenges were either direct or indirect, meaning that, in western cultures, for instance, communication is more direct and explicit while in non-Western culture, communication is more centered on the meaning the message is presenting. This means that they might be a communication challenge in terms of both parties wanting to get the conveyed message. The non-Western person might understand the Western person’s message while the Westerner might not due to their cultural
In a study, Li writes, “Healthcare team performance may be hindered due to the different cultural backgrounds of the nurses” (2014, p. 316). A report mentions that the IENs have less confidence in providing culturally competent care to the patients of the different culture due to lack of understanding of health beliefs, values and behaviors of that culture (Lampley, 2008). For instance, in Philippines, most of the decisions are made by the doctors. Nurses just follow doctors’ order in decision making (Tregunno, et al., 2009). But in Canada nurses are required to be more assertive and actively involved in decision-making and have more responsibility and accountability regarding patient care. Further, Canada is a multicultural country and
The healthcare workforce is suffering critically due to its lack in diversity. As healthcare organizations are growing and the number of patients is increasing, so is the diversity of the patients. There are more minority patients are the number of minorities increase in the United States. The need for minority employees is crucial in that they are needed to help assist patients who have the similar cultural, racial, and ethnic upbringings. There are many barriers in healthcare workforce that are keeping minorities from reaching their full potential to become employees in healthcare, particularly upper-level leadership positions; as patients continue to become more diverse, so does the need of employees.
In the other hand, “simply recognizing and accepting cultural diversity is insufficient to attain cultural competency in health care”, as cited by Edelman (2014, p.26). It is important that before we get to know and understand other cultures, we are able to recognize our own beliefs and values, and more importantly, that we do not attempt to influence others with our own culture. Every person is unique and it is essential for us to be aware of that so we can meet their own needs and expectations while providing exceptional
... (2008). Why Cultural Competence Matters in Healthcare Organizations. In CEO Refresher.brain food for business.
According to Andrews and Boyle (2016), having a diverse workforce provides a greater satisfaction among employees, which will result in higher retention of employees as well. By hiring a diverse culture within an organization this increases a workplaces economy and becomes a culturally competent organization. Otherwise, a high turnover can be very costly to an organization and the functionality can decrease. Many organizations have developed policies to help recruit and retain people from different backgrounds. When employees feel that they are valued because of their diversity, the employees will feel protected from discrimination, feel that there is room for advancement within the company, and increase employment retention (Kaplan, Wiley, & Maertz, 2011). With the increase of minorities across the nation, having diversity in nurses and healthcare workers to accommodate this diversity also improves the quality of care to the patients while also increasing their health outcomes and satisfaction (Ayoola, 2013). We have learned in the previous weeks that being able to communicate with our patient’s and understanding their culture can positively increase the outcome of the health. Having a diverse staff will also help establish trust and make them feel at ease. However, there can be barriers to having a diverse culture in the
In order to provide a diverse healthcare environment, all employees in the healthcare system must understand the difference between culture and diversity. Naturally, culture and diversity mean the same thing. Culture, is certain behavioral characteristics that are learned and shared. Diversity is referred to a person who is of different racial background. Considering a population’s diversity and culture together helps establish culture in a healthcare
Cultural diversity is an essential piece of the team-building puzzle. As stated earlier, a heterogeneous team usually equals a successful team. A culturally diverse team brings the obvious cultural differences in language, dress and traditions to the table. In addition, less tangible characteristic such as moral values are equally, if not more important. These different methodologies and teachings help influence the team's direction. Persons of Western culture will have a different set of beliefs and methodologies from those of Middle Eastern or Eastern ethnicity. When team members take the time to learn and understand each culture's moral value, the result is a strong team foundation. High performance teams take and incorporate these cultural differences and use these different beliefs and values to attain the team goal.
Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and patient which in turn improves healing and health.
There are several factors that are important if a culturally diverse business team is to flourish and realize its vast potential. Di Stefano and Maznevski (2000) claim that there are three imperative steps to achieving multicultural team success; namely, mapping the team; where the team members need to clearly understand their cultural differences in how they work and view success. This is often led by the team leader. Next, the team must bridge, that is, to communicate with one another, bearing in mind their cultural differences. Finally, the team must integrate, meaning that they bring together these differences and leverage on them to succeed.
Because of the growing diversity due to the influx of immigrants and refugees in the United States, there is an increase in varying cultures present at a workplace and thus an increased need to learn each other’s culture. Aspects like holidays and color can have a huge impact on people of different cultures. For example, in most of the Asian cultures, the color white symbolizes death and mourning whereas it symbolizes winter, snow, images of purity and innocence, and brides in the wedding dress in the western countries. The majority of the Eastern countries have different holidays and they even celebrate those on different days than in the western countries. If these differences are not taken into considerations, it causes miscommunication, frustration, and failure of expected organizational outcomes and the same rule applies in a health care environment as well.
Svensson, G., 2001. 'Globalization' of Business Activities: A 'Global Strategy' Approach, Management Decision, 39(1), pp.6-18.
There was a marked increase in the migration of people within and between countries worldwide. So the 21st century is a time when nurses and other health care professional are eager to learn about different cultures of the world and to provide effective, safe, and cultural competent health care. Some statistics show that the US population is becoming more diverse and will continue on through the decades. As demographics continue to change, cultural diversity begin to become a major challenge.
In the workplace, it is common to encounter individuals of different cultures, ethnicities, and genders. This diversity can either lead to an introduction of new work methods, or it can lead to conflict between coworkers. In order to avoid conflict, and have all employees work as a cohesive team, managers must educate themselves, and their employees on the topic of cultural diversity. In order for your practices to be considered effective, you must not only respect and recognize an employee’s diversity, you must use their difference to benefit them.
In today’s globalized world, multicultural teams accomplish a significant proportion of organizational work. Multicultural teams are formed because they improve organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. As such, multicultural teams offer huge potential to organizations. The most critical and practical challenge multicultural teams face is managing conflicts across members’ national cultural boundaries. Other cultural challenges in multicultural teams include dealing with coordination and control issues, maintaining communication richness, and developing and maintaining team cohesiveness. For multicultural teams to be effective, members must learn to address the challenges that arise from team members’ differing nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
Communication is the key to organization for these companies and leaders depend largely on its effectiveness. In one study of cross cultural communication, managers were asked to think of seven problems before the meeting to make the communication effective (Barriers of Cross Cultural Communication in Multinational Firms). But, how do people understand each other when they do not share the same culture? To answer this question we must first understand cross cultural management. This type of management focuses on the behavior of people working together as a group ...