Avoiding Cultural Discrimination in the Workplace

Culture is a complicated general notion with various definitions. For simplicity, cultures in general refer to a group with which people share general experiences that outlines the way we value life. This may consist of groups that were born into such as sex, tribe, or nationality. For instance, one can acquire a different culture by moving into a new region, by a change in the economic situation, or by becoming incapacitated. When thinking of culture in a broad way, we recognize everyone belong to many cultures at one time. According to Jandt (2000), “culture is also a context. Every culture has its own worldview; its own way of thinking of activity, time, and human nature; its own way of perceiving self; and its own system of social organization”. Culture has also been defined as “that culture constitute that which makes up our way of life, these include our shared values, knowledge, behavior, and expressing of symbolism” (Dobkins, B. and Pace, R. 2003). Also in accordance to a paper titled “diversity in the workplace” (Lopez-Rocha, S. 2007), “organizational management and those in management positions deal with differences in communication on day to day basis”. Majority of these frictions are focused on those diverse styles in communication. Cultures furnish people with methods of thinking such as to see, hear, and interpret the world at large. However, similar words can mean different things to people from different cultures, though they speak similar language. When translating different languages used for communication, there is high possibility of misinterpretation which could lead to an increase in confusion in an organization.

Some cultures see conflict in a positive way while other people see it as something that can b...

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...s to assign meaning to the symbols of communication. The context can help recognize to what extent the source and receiver share a similar meaning for the communicated symbols, and an understanding of the culture in which the communication take place, which is being critical for the success of the communication itself. Getting to know about other cultures would potentially help us mirror our own image. There is an opportunity to confront our assumptions about the best way of doing things and through various approaches.

Finally, learning about people from other cultures would become less lonely. Discrimination and label divides us from entire groups of people who may be friends and partners in working for transformation. There is hope and energies that take us on the challenge of enhancing our communities and the world at large when talking with different people.