Major Performance Challenges: Business Communication

Question One 

The three major problems affecting my organization are staff turnover, high stress levels, and lack of collaboration among the workers. While the high stress levels and lack of collaboration are performance issues, staff turnover is a result of poor recruiting practices. High stress levels are a performance issue since it results from work overload. Likewise, the lack of collaboration among workers is a performance issue as it stems inter-department rivalry. 

Question Two 

Major Stakeholder Problems 

Question 3 

The first problem affecting stakeholders is lack of effective communication. Since the members of the agency are from different cultures, instances of poor communication are common. Not only does this lead to inefficiency, it also causes conflicts and rifts between workers. The most effective way is solving this issue is training workers on intercultural communication. Intercultural communication relates to a discipline that examines communication across different cultures. It is practically applied to address a wide range of communications processes and issues common in a particular social makeup of individuals from diverse social, cultural, religious, ethnic, and educational backgrounds (Lustig & Koester, 2010). It makes it possible to understand how people from these diverse cultures act, communicate, or even perceive the entire world (Issa et al., 2015). The finding on intercultural business communication has it that culture is a strong determinant of how individuals encode the message(s), what channel they choose to convey such messages and the means through which such statements are interpreted. Therefore, it is possible to assert that intercultural communication stretches beyond language to include social attributes, the patterns of thinking, and the cultures of diverse groups of people in an organization (Eden & Gupta, 2017). Miscommunication is undoubtedly a key source of intercultural discomfort and conflict, and for this reason, communication should go past what is written or expressed (Pate & Sharafa, 2015). Since communication varies from cultures, how, when, and why a message is said remains critical. Otherwise, in a highly characterized world by an ever-increasing number of contacts arising from communication among people of diverse cultures, women and men are not immune to specific barriers, issues, or problems that they encounter as managers following their interactions with cultures. 

In many ways, the most crucial thing about intercultural communication is based on how employees adapt to other cultures within an organizational setup. According to Chaney and Martin (2011), the intercultural concept of adaptation is being understood more often. It is worth to note of the differences between adaptation and assimilation because in many cases, the terms are misused. The latter relates to the process leading to re-socialization, and it aims at replacing the person’s original worldview with a host culture. In contrast, the latter leads to an expansion of one’s worldwide view to accommodate behavior as well as values that are relevant to a specific culture ( Lustig & Koester, 2010 ). For this reason, the assumed outcome of assimilation is becoming a new person, while the result of cultural adaption is becoming a multicultural person. A multicultural person possesses some new aspects of culture that does not affect his or her original socialization. As noted by Lustig and Koester (2010), the identity of issues revolving around adaptation are somehow complicated. Still, their understanding (by women and men who discharge their managerial duties) is one of the new fields of intercultural communication. 

Another problem, and perhaps the most significant, that affects stakeholders at the agency is stereotypes and generalizations. Stereotyping amounts to cultural tightness, and in most cases, women are on the receiving end. Majorly, stereotypes arise whenever people imagine that everyone is from the same cultural groups and that they bear similar characteristics. Usually, it is attached to race, religion, ethnicity, age, and gender. One thing that should be underscored is those specific characteristics that are generally assumed to be shared might be respected. However, if disrespect occurs, a negative stereotype comes into play. In the agency, stereotypes of either kind are very problematic, and women and men managers could find it very difficult to contain. Stereotypes are very concerning at the agency since they could give rise to self-fulfilling prophecies, thus, providing a selective means of confirming prejudice. 

In tackling the problem of stereotypes and generalizations, Both men and women managers in equal measure encounter the challenge of social identity and ethnicity in the process of carrying out their mandate in a multicultural workplace ( Berman, 2006 ). A group turns out to lean on ethnicity when particular cultural characteristics are applied to socially and politically organize it. The ‘ethnicity’ in a group is made up of specific traits that bear a cohesive political power . Social identity is closely related to culture in many ways, and managers have to be aware of them ( Berman, 2006 ). At a given point in time, culture tends to offer several properties and relations around which persons organize their lives. Individuals sometimes construct their social identity by considering a section of these properties and relations as climacteric for the kind of person they are. In this case, it becomes possible for such a person to identify themselves with their age, sex, family position, political ideology, religious and national affiliation, or profession. Since social organizations are built around most of these features, identifying oneself with these characteristics qualifies one to belong to a particular group of people with a common thought. 

The majority of the employees can identify and associate themselves with most of these characteristics, and it does not come as a surprise when managers face them in any multicultural workplace. However, there is also a possibility of one to able to identify himself or herself strongly with specific characteristics mentioned above especially on the one that he or she deems necessary for his or her national affiliation or ethnic group ( Toh & Leonardelli, 2012 ). In other words, a person’s belonging to a particular ethnic group is what gives him or her identity. Furthermore, studies have shown that social identity can be established based on other characteristics such as personal preferences as well as the extent of social recognition ( Issa et al., 2011 ). Essentially, this gives an implication that employees with high-status jobs are often less prone than those with low job status to allow ethnic membership to be their main identification feature . Therefore, it is equally important to remain cognizant that there is no necessary relationship between identity on the one hand and ethnicity, on the other hand. Any position taken in the absence of a careful reflection can undoubtedly lead to precipitous assumptions concerning stereotypical cultural differences. 

References 

Berman, E. M. (2006).  Performance and productivity in public and nonprofit organizations . Routledge. 

Chaney, L. H. & Martin, J. S. (2011). Intercultural Business Communication (5 th ed.). Prentice Hall. 

Issa, A.A., Yanusa, M. & Garga, F.Z. (2015). ‘The Meaning and Theories of Intercultural Communication.’ Working Paper  ·  DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14026.36806 

Lustig, M.W. & Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures / Myron W. Lustig, Jolene Koester . Boston : Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. 

Pate, U. & Sharafa, D. (2015). ‘ Cross-cultural Communication, Peace Education in Nigeria.’ In: The Online Journal of Communication , Vol. 1, No. 1 

Toh, S.M. & Leonardelli, G.J. (2012) . ‘ Cultural Constraints On The Emergence Of Women As Leaders.’ Journal of World Business, pp.1-8.