1. What is a multicultural organization, as defined in the journal?

According to the journal, a multicultural organization is defined as an organization wherein people of different diverse
cultures work together in order to achieve a certain common goal and are hubs of various cultures hailing from across
the world. Moreover, it is an organization that possesses a larger proportion of the organizational workforce throughout
the world’s economy.

2. Why is it important to know cultural diversity?

The journal stated that cultural diversity is important because it helps in team building, trust formation,
conflict resolution, and effective collaboration and the most important is so that we can assess the
performance of the team members. Also, knowing this can helps as simplify the functions of both
multinational employers and employees.

3. How does communication vary in different countries as cited in the journal of Hussain?

There are many examples given in the journal that portrays how communication varies in different
countries. It mentioned that East Asians presume that the people from Western countries treat
strangers like friends and friends like strangers also, the communication in Western countries is
generally direct and explicit and the message is very clear while for other countries like Japan, formality,
and etiquette play a major role in their communication. For some cultures, eye contact is considered
discourteous while for others refraining from it is considered disrespectful. Moreover, in Western
culture and Africa, giving a hug is considered very informal and fine but in Asian countries, it may not.
Further, some cultures treat women as subordinates and for men belonging to such cultures, it becomes
near impossible to work shoulder to shoulder or have women as their superiors. In some cultures, the
appropriate greeting is a handshake, bow, or embrace. The journal also stated that in a study, Arabs,
Latin Americans, and Southern Europeans look into the eyes of conversational partners whereas Asians
and North Europeans only use a peripheral gaze or no gaze at all during interactions. ‘Silence’ is also
indicated as respect for Chinese people while it is interpreted as shyness or lack of interest among
Australians. In Thailand, touching strangers is considered rude whereas in Ethiopia, walking in hand with
friends and the opposite sex indicates a romantic relationship.
4. What are the communication challenges in multicultural organization? Describe each and
cite one example mentioned in the journal.

Language Barrier- it is the most common problem found in MCO especially among the staff because
they have more chances of meeting and dealing with the speakers of other languages. If the English
language is the lingua franca of the modern economic world, many non-English speakers can be
overlooked and unrewarding because of their incompetence to communicate and comprehend English
and thus convey what they want to say.

Stereotyping- is the notion that we carry about a certain set of people and their culture, value,
judgment, overestimation, or over-exaggerations. This barrier is the main reason for differences of
opinions about the conflicting culture and leads to miscommunication. An example of this is saying that
Spanish people are bad-tempered and racist.

Ethnocentrism/ Cultural Relativism - is defined as a cultural superiority complex that rationalizes that
one’s own culture or group of behaviors advanced against all the other group. It is also an attitude
wherein one’s own cultural experience unintentionally makes us feel that our culture is distinctive.
Cultural relativism is the belief wherein one compares the standards and conducts of target cultures
and gauges them against the norms of what's incorrect and what's correct. An example of it is the
workforce of MCO faces a lot of issues due to ethnocentrism.

Cultural Shock- is the accidental encounter of one with some unknown and unexpected cultural
practice. It is also virtually universal which happens even on migration from one advanced nation to
another. An example of it is when employees enter another nation or territory, they tend to undergo
cultural shock which is diffidence and bewilderment caused by encountering a different culture.

Attitude toward Conflict Resolution- this plays a vital role in the working place, especially in teamwork.
For example, the people of the United States take conflicts positively and like to solve them directly, and
face-to-face.

Approaches to Tasks’ Completion- This barrier talks about how one culture accomplishes the task that
they have they may be categorized into two the individualistic and the collectivistic. The individualistic
category is cultures that are more self-centered and emphasize mostly their individual goals and tend to
think only of themselves while collectivistic is a culture that has a great emphasis on the terms “we”
rather than “I”. AN example of an individualistic category is Westerners accomplish one task at a time.
On the other hand, an example of collectivistic is Asians and Africans accomplish many tasks at a time

Different Decision-Making Styles- It is mostly an ability found higher and deeper with MCO managers
and it has different styles because of different cultures in taking decisions. The roles individuals play in
decision-making vary widely from culture to culture. For example, when decisions are made in a group,
the “rule of majority” is a common approach among the US people

Different Attitudes toward Privacy- is an important element of culture. It is a mindset related to

efficiency and productivity because if managers of MCOs will properly know about the attitude toward
the privacy of the staff they can accrue better competence to them. Different cultures in the world have
different orientations towards privacy. An example of it is the people of Germany, France, China etc. are
enclosed people. They have a high degree of privacy, and they share just a low percentage with public

Different Ways of Building Trust and Relationship- cultural differences play a vital role in the creation of
trust and relationships but building trust is a critical step in the creation and development of MCO
teams. For example, in many other parts of the globe, including many Asian and Latin American nations,
building relationships is a prerequisite for professional interactions. Building trust in these countries
often involves lengthy discussions on non-professional topics and shared meals in restaurants.

Non-Verbal Communication- it plays an important role in any communication situation and it also plays
a supplementary role to the verbal context delivered orally. Knowledge of different non-
verbal communication is essentially very important so as to avoid misunderstanding and other barriers
to communication. An example of it is paralanguage, gesture, and facial expression.
5. What are the steps to overcoming communication challenges in MCOs?
1. Hiring staff in MCOs should be carefully evaluated at the entry point either in an oral fashion or in
written.
2. Once appointed, language training support is the requisition of the employee of MCO.
3. Employees need to recognize and admit the existence of differences between cultures, the
differences in values, beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations.
4. A diverse workforce requires efficient communication wherein MCO leaders must ensure that there
are open avenues and platforms for employees to communicate new ideas, grievances, input, and
feedback.
5. MCOs assignments should be allocated as per the experience and interest of the employee.