ETHNIC AND CULTURAL

CHALLENGES AT
WOKRPLACE
 Introduction
 Ethnic and Cultural differences at workplace exist
because employees come from diverse ethnic and
cultural backgrounds with varying experiences
among them.
 It becomes a challenge for many supervisors and
managers to monitor and handle different
employees who conform to various ethnic
inclinations as well as cultural beliefs.
 The differences are the reasons for the challenges
that supervisors face at workplace
 An overview
The main ethnic and cultural challenges that
exist at work place include;
Misinterpretation of professional
communication
 Different understanding of professional
etiquette
Different working style across different
cultural teams
Unwillingness of the perceived inferior
culture to have their voice heard
Individuals from polite and deferential cultures
are susceptible to this challenge hence giving
supervisors a great deal in addressing their
issues.
Cultural superiority and inferiority stereotypes
plays a greater part in this challenge especially
for individuals who feel their culture is inferior
 Misinterpretation of professional
communication
 Communication challenges exist in contexts where
there exist a difference in translation of certain
communication styles such as idioms in which one
culture has a different understanding from the other.
 Non-verbal communication that has different
understanding across different cultures. Supervisors are
left to deal with the challenge on their own. Non-verbal
cues in some culture has a different meaning in another
culture hence difficult to communicate to the
employees
 Language barrier is just one of the challenges at
workplace (Ladegaard & Jenks, 2015).
 ….continuation
Physical gesture, maintaining eye contact and
greetings differ across cultures making it even
harder for the supervisors to handle the issues.
A good example is handshaking where in
many occasions comes with cultural
implications.
 Different understanding of
professional etiquette
Professional workplace etiquette is a key
workplace element that every employee needs
to adhere to in their daily duties.
It becomes a big challenge to the supervisor in
cases where the employees come from diverse
cultural backgrounds.
Individuals bring different attitudes, values and
etiquette is another big that can lead to
misunderstanding and ill-feelings.
Working styles across different cultural
teams
 Attitudes and working styles vary across thereby
reflecting employees’ and supervisors’ cultural
values as well as compounding differences.
 Approaches to teamwork and collaboration vary
across cultures reflecting the kind of diversity a
working environment holds.
 It is therefore imperative for the supervisor to
train and teach his employees to have a greater
understanding of the work environment. This will
place the supervisor in position to understand his
team better
 How the supervisor can understand
and overcome the challenge
 Its important for the supervisor to understand and
overcome the ethnic and cultural challenge at
workplace through adoption of critical techniques.
 Being culturally accommodative guarantees the
supervisor an opportunity to understand and go
round the ethnic challenge at workplace. It means
understanding and considering all cultures at
work to reduce conflict and misunderstanding as a
result of misunderstanding (Madsen & Mabokela,
2013).
 …continuation
 Being accommodative can include giving employees
who have prayer weeks and religious holidays such a
Muslims should be time to attend their religious
functions. It ends up reducing tension and discomfort
that the strenuous relationship breeds.
 It’s obvious that everybody wants his/her culture to be
respected so supervisors should do the same (Hopkins,
2016). No one needs to change his/her culture to fit into
others but should instead accommodate differences and
also understand each needs to be able to reduce the
higher chances of workplace misunderstanding.
 Culture appreciation and learning of
employees culture
 Promoting appreciation of cultural differences at the
workplace has been very successful for many supervisors
trying to reduce ethnic and cultural challenge at the
workplace (Jogulu, 2010).
 Learning the culture of your employees to be in a position
to understand the differences between the several cultures
which in turn reduce cultural misunderstanding that leads to
workplace conflict at times.
 Learning communication differences between various
cultures can help equip the supervisor with the expertise of
dealing with the workplace ethnic challenge.
 Conclusion
 Despite being entitled with a lot of benefits, ethnic and
cultural differences at the workplace pose a significant
challenge to the supervisors.
 Some of the challenges include;
 colleagues in the workplace from different ethnic and cultural
background unwillingness to have their voices heard
 Misinterpretation of professional communication has become
attributed to ethnic and cultural challenges that many supervisors
face at workplace especially across languages especially
translation and non-verbal communication.
 Different understanding of professional etiquette implies the
workplace relationship among employees and between the
employees and the supervisor especially due to different
attitudes, values, and etiquette towards work.
 …continuation
The understanding and overcome can be
through;
By being accommodative of cultural
differences
 Learning new culture and communication
 Promoting cultural difference appreciation.
 References
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racioethnic differences in the link between workplace racioethnic
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Psychology, 16(3), 307-312. doi:10.1037/a0018669
Hopkins, B. (2016). Cultural differences and improving performance: How
values and beliefs influence organizational performance. Routledge.
Jogulu, U. D. (2010). Culturally-linked leadership styles. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 31(8), 705-719.
Ladegaard, H. J., & Jenks, C. J. (2015). Language and intercultural
communication in the workplace: critical approaches to theory and
practice. Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), 1-12.
Madsen, J. A., & Mabokela, R. O. (2013). Culturally relevant schools:
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