Free Essay “Cultural Sensitivity”

The performance of the American company recruiting professionals from Greece, Germany, Iran and Singapore, depends on the ability of the leader to integrate employees into the organizational culture. To avoid conflicts and tension between employees because of their cultural differences, it is recommended to employ tolerant and liberal employees and introduce universal principles of organizational culture which are acceptable to all employees.
The problem of cultural sensitivity can be crucial for an effective marketing performance of an organization, operating in a multicultural environment. At the same time, the world growing to be more and more integrated and economy is one of the major fields where international cooperation and integration is particularly significant. In this respect, the American company operating in a culturally diverse environment has to adopt strategies and approaches which can help employees, which have a different cultural background, to work efficiently within the organization. The role of a leader can hardly be underestimated because, in contemporary organizations, it is the leader that should introduce organizational changes and maintain a positive organizational culture. The integration of employees with different cultural background is one of the major conditions of the formation of a positive organizational culture.
On analyzing the development of the American company operating in multicultural environment, the leader of the company should primarily focus on the recruiting of professionals who could cooperate effectively and who could interact with each other with a minimal risk of conflicts (Koch, 2004). Naturally, the situation, when the leader can employ professionals who share the same set of values, rules and cultural norms, is ideal but almost improbable in the modern cultural environment. Instead, the leader should work in a culturally diverse environment, when employees from Greece, Germany, Iran and Singapore have to work together.
One of the major tasks of the leader is to create a totally new organizational culture which would meet needs and peculiarities of all employees. In other words, employees from Greece, Germany, Iran and Singapore should adopt norms, rules and principles of the American company which are common to all employees, regardless of their cultural background. The development of the corporate culture can be crucial for the effective organizational performance (Fidelus, 2003). It is important to understand that the development of the organizational culture implies finding the balance between cultural needs and peculiarities of employees representing different ethnic groups, Greek, German, Iranian and Singaporean. This means that the leader should be able to develop the organizational culture which is neutral in relation to Greek, German, Iranian and Singaporean cultural norms and traditions and, at the same time, it should be engaging employees, shaping their identity as members of a team working within one and the same organization. Hence, the leader should focus on the development of the clear and understandable principles which can lay the foundation to the corporate culture.
However, to implement these principles effectively, the leader should primarily recruit professionals who can adopt them easily (Lussier and Achua, 2005). In the process of recruiting, it is possible to recommend the leader to focus the attention on applicants from diverse cultural background, Greek, German, Iranian, Singaporean, which are the most tolerant in relation to other cultures and their traditions. In fact, tolerant and liberal employees are the most preferable in the context of the American company which employs Greeks, Germans, Iranians and Singaporean. For instance, the leader should prefer Iranian and Singaporean applicants who got their education in Europe, while recruiting German and Greeks the leader should prefer applicants who had experience of work in Asia, especially Iran and Singapore. Thus, the leader can recruit employees who are more or less familiar with foreign cultures and, therefore, they are accustomed to the difference of other cultures from the culture of their own.
While recruiting employees, it is necessary to make them acquainted with the basic principles of the organizational culture, which should be simple and comprehensible, but, above all, they should prevent any risk of offense of representatives of different cultures (Noble, 2005). The elaboration of these principles should be grounded on basic humanistic values which are truly universal and acceptable by all people, regardless of their origin and cultural background. For instance, the mutual respect of employees can be one of the major principles of the organization. Furthermore, another principle can be the equality of all employees and their subordination to the leader that will meet traditions of Iranian and Singaporean employees who get used to strong, even authoritarian leadership, while this principle does not contradict to cultural norms of Germans and Greeks who get used to certain social and organizational hierarchy. Also, employees should have the right to express their opinion freely as long as it does not offend other employees, company or its leader. This will allow European employees realize their initiatives without offending other employees and avoiding undermining the authority of the leader. European employees got used to more liberal relations and they need to realize their ideas to feel their individual success, while Asian employees are less liberal and more concerned with their subordination to the leader. Finally, all conflicts and contradictions within the organization should be solved through public discussion, by means of which it will be possible to resolve controversies between employees.
Thus, in conclusion, the leader should take into consideration cultural peculiarities of employees and develop organizational culture in accordance with universal values which are acceptable to all employees representing different cultures. The organizational culture should meet needs and traditions of all employees. Simultaneously, the organizational culture promoted by the leader should evoke the feeling of unity of people working within the American company. Only on such a condition, the American company could perform successfully in a multicultural environment.
References:
Fidelus, L. (2003, Fall). “Servant-leadership: Leading by serving.” Crossroads Center Program Catalog (Chicago, IL), pp. 20-21.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1986). “The leadership crisis: A message for College and University Faculty.” In Humanitas, Journal for the Institute of Man (pp. 1-12). Pittsburg, Pa: Humanitas.
Hesselbein, F. and P. M. Cohen. (1999). Leader to leader. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Koch, C. (2004., July 5-12). “Servant leadership: Can the bishops learn from Southwest Airlines?” America, pp. 17-19.
Lussier and Achua. (2005). Leadership Theory, Application and Skill Development. New York: Random House.
Noble, J. (2005, February). “Servant-leadership.” Organisations & People (UK), 12(1), pp.22-30.
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