Running head: MULTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT

Multicultural Management

Student Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Due to the changing dynamics of globalization, several factors dictate how an

organization performs its activities. These factors are informed by the environment of the host

country and many times may vary from one country to the other. One of the most common

environmental factors that affect international businesses is the difference in culture. Culture can

be defined as the customary beliefs, social and religious norms laws and other capabilities

brought together by a community over time. Understanding how cultural differences affect

business interactions and business objectives determine the success of any business. The

business protocol, decision making, management of employees and projects, how the business

takes its risks, marketing, and distribution of sales are all embedded and structured differently by

different cultures. In other words, the culture of a nation has a direct influence on how businesses

conduct their business. Consequently, the interplay between culture and religion is always

dynamic in such a way that the forces of a culture strongly infiltrate and affect religious beliefs.

Cultural and religious beliefs which an international manager should be aware of has a direct

impact on the operations of the business. This research clearly analysis how different cultures

affect international business management and the recommendations necessary for overcoming

cultural differences for any manager.

Understanding and learning the values, practices, and processes of American society

especially the business cultures plays a fundamental role for any manager to adjust to a new

business environment. As for my friend who has acquired a middle management position I

highly recommend and encourage her to first learn the culture of the people to adjust to the

businesses practices of the American people. There are several advantages of first taking time to

learn the culture of the employees for managers rather than directly taking the role delegated to

them. according to the research, culture can be a core facilitator for continuous quality
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improvement(Huang 2016). By first encouraging my friend to learn the organizational and

people culture she will learn the company's internal practices to examine failures and weaknesses

for her to make programmatic and operational changes. Secondly first learning the culture of the

people will improve her transition process. Consequently, learning and development go in handy.

Through learning, she will develop sound working practices in which she will be aligned to the

organizational goals. Lastly, through learning, she will understand how to develop morale and

motivation for employees

Different countries have different religious beliefs and practices and consequently, these

beliefs and practices can have a direct or indirect influence on any business organization.

Similarly, various religious institutions all over the world play a fundamental role in defining and

resolving current discussions about ethical business behavior. In the American culture half of the

American workers interact with people from different cultures and religions and this has often

given rise to religious conflicts. One of the major religious conflicts that arise in many business

institutions is requiring employees to work on religious days or holidays. One of the core areas

that bring about religious conflicts and tensions in workplaces is the question of working on

religious days. When managers insist that all employees should work on certain religious days

the question of religious discrimination arise. When religious discrimination arises the affected

employees may feel demotivated and may also bring friction between employees and

management( Castaneda &Bateh 2013). There are however remedies to religious conflicts which

involve managers carefully framing issues putting into consideration the long-term effect of their

decisions. Managers can affirm an inclusive culture in their organization or even suggest that

religion be tolerated and possibly invite litigation. Secondly, the employees have their
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responsibilities which may include giving the management notice of any actual religious conflict

and working with their managers to reach an accommodation.

One of the core factors that may affect new managers from readily expressing their

idea is culture. Cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence must share what we call a

propensity to suspend judgment which can be simply interpreted as thinking before acting. In the

business world, executives themselves are the product of different cultures in which they have

learned and conducted business. It may be difficult for new managers to express themselves and

their managerial styles in institutions whose culture is different from her culture(Gancalves

2015). To drive this point home we can take the situation of a British executive who has been

trained in American business and has been given the responsibilities to run an argentine

company. Through this illustration, it is clear that the British manager may find it difficult to

express her ideas readily due to cultural differences. Secondly, different cultures may vary in

their conception of the most transformational leadership. In some cultures, a manager may be

needed to take strong and decisive action to be seen as a leader while in some cultures

consultation and democratic approaches may be preferred forms of exercising effective

leadership

There are however some actions that may be taken to become a multicultural manager.

First, as a manager to become a multicultural manager I would organize cross-cultural training in

my organization. To improve the employee's morale organizing cross-cultural training would

help overcome the cultural challenges that may be present in my organization. In the cross-

cultural training, the training would seek to minimize the cultural barriers in the

organization(Ravasi et al 2015). Secondly, the training would seek to avoid the stereotypes and

prejudice which may result from form cultural differences in the organization. The training
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would also encourage the employees to their own cultures as well as the cultures of other

members of the organization. The training would also help improve the social skills of different

employees as well as training them of becoming better listeners. Lastly, the training would

educate the employees to aim at their attention on common principles rather than their

differences. As a way of becoming an excellent multicultural leader, I would build trust with

organization employees and promote mutual respect through practicing empathy. Empathy can

simply be defined as the ability of a leader to understand and share the feeling with all the

organizational employees. To grow and develop leadership listening skills, especially when in a

leadership position practicing empathy is of utmost importance. Understanding what coworkers

from different cultures and backgrounds are experiencing will be of great help to practice

empathy. The concept of practicing empathy in multi-cultural organizations has also other

benefits one of which is providing support for multicultural employees to continue providing

quality work while working at the institution(Ravasi et al 2015. Secondly practicing empathy

helps solve issues standing in their ways to reach desired goals. Lastly practicing empathy helps

resolve cultural conflicts together with other conflicts more quickly and effectively.

On the other hand, there is the subject of intercultural communication which means

the sending of messages to be processed by another person of a different culture. Similarly, just

like how people understand the different cultures it is also clear that nonverbal communication

varies from one person to the other. Nonverbal communication has been a source of conflict,

especially in the workplace mainly due to misinterpretation of the nonverbal cues among other

factors. If the communication is verbal tonal variation can influence how the receiver interprets

the message( lyekolo 2020). If the sender of a message uses a high tone while communicating

the receiver can sometimes interpret the high tonal variation as being overly aggressive and this
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can lead to total misunderstanding between the parties. On the other hand, misinterpretation or

misunderstanding of nonverbal cues can be a source of miscommunication. For example, when

someone with folded arms and tapping his or her feet may be interpreted that the person may be

late and this can put someone off if the person asks for help. Another source of

miscommunication among people is racial prejudice. Irrational hatred or hostility towards other

people based on individual beliefs, nationalism, race country, and even color can be a source of

miscommunication among people in the society. prejudice often serves as a barrier to effective

communication. When it comes to nonverbal communication and how people interpret certain

gestures conflicts often arise in a situation where certain gestures have been misinterpreted by

the receiver especially when cultural differences arise(Lyekolo 2020). However, there are some

universal signals such as the eyebrow flash of recognition or when someone opens hands and

palm gesture which may be interpreted as that the person needs something from us. Many are

times when nonverbal cues are misinterpreted and result in many conflicts, especially in

workplaces. Religious signs and gestures have also been a source of misunderstanding especially

when non-familiar gestures are made especially in different workplaces.

In conclusion from the above analysis, it is clear that culture and cultural differences

are fundamental areas that international managers should pay close attention to, especially in

managing task forces that involve employees or personnel from different cultures. Understanding

the values, practices, and processes of different cultures lays a firm foundation for multicultural

management. Similarly, how culture influences managerial styles among other things religion

and religious beliefs and practices should also be taken into consideration keeping in mind that

different religions have different beliefs and practices. Multicultural managers should first

understand how religion affects the working environment as well as how it influences employees'
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motivation. Working on religious days and holidays is a key area that multicultural managers

should take into consideration. For example, when working in countries or areas where Muslim

is the dominant religion asking employees to work on Fridays may result in conflict between the

Muslim employees and the management as well as working in areas where Christianity is the

dominant religion delegating employees to work on Sabbath day may also result to conflict

between the Christian employees and the management. It is therefore fundamental for

multicultural managers to put into consideration the cultures and religion of their employees in

exercising their managerial duties

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References

Huang, J. (2016). The challenge of multicultural management in global projects. Procedia-Social and

Behavioral Sciences, 226, 75-81.

Castaneda, M. E., & Bateh, J. (2013). Strategies for multicultural management: Communication and a

common set of values. Journal of International Education Research (JIER), 9(1), 41-46.

Gonçalves, G., Reis, M., Sousa, C., Santos, J., & Orgambídez-Ramos, A. (2015). The effect of

multicultural experience in conflicts management styles: Mediation of cultural intelligence and

self-monitoring. Journal of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, 3(1), 4-21.

Ravasi, C., Salamin, X., & Davoine, E. (2015). Cross-cultural adjustment of skilled migrants in a

multicultural and multilingual environment: an explorative study of foreign employees and their

spouses in the Swiss context. The International Journal of Human Resource

Management, 26(10), 1335-1359.

Iyekolo, A. (2020). Non-Verbal Communication and Management of Interactive Conflict in School-based

Violence: A Sociological Perspective. Canadian Journal of Family and Youth/Le Journal

Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse, 12(1), 260-268.