Towards Effective Diversity Communication at ABC - Assignment Example

Organizational Communication Proposal: Towards Effective Diversity Communication at ABC Introduction This organizational communication proposal seeks to enhance communication processes at the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Specifically, this proposal seeks to address the problem of conflict within the organization’s diverse workforce, which is comprised of employees of different cultural backgrounds. Through the concept of communicating across diversity, this proposal provides a framework to addressing conflict among the organization’s diverse workforce. Description of Problem The present day workplace environment has undergone significant transformations in the 21st century, especially with regards to the diversity of workforces (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas, 2013); the contemporary workplace environment is characterized by people from a vast range of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds more than ever before (Prause and Mujtaba, 2015). Like is the norm at most corporations, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is also keen on reflecting America’s cultural and ethnic diversity and this inevitably calls for broadening the diversity of its workforce. For instance, as part of its diversity initiative, the corporation now broadcasts programs that represent America’s diverse ethnic and cultural identities including shows by African Americans, Latina, as well as Asian lead hosts. With the widening ethnic and cultural diversity at the ABC, there are innumerable points of conflict that may easily provoke conflicts due to disagreements or misunderstandings within the organization. Significantly, the increasing ethnic and cultural diversity at ABC poses critical communication challenges, especially because the corporation’s diverse workforce espouses varied and often opposed cultural values and beliefs, which exert a profound impact on their communication styles (Prause and Mujtaba, 2015). There are significant differences in communication styles between different ethnic and cultural identities (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas, 2013); for instance, individuals from high-context cultures such as Asian and Latin American cultures prefer to infer most of their information from the context of the communication. Contrariwise, individuals from low-context cultures such as the North American and the Scandinavian cultures often require most of the communication information to be spelt out clearly for them. In that respect, since individuals from varying cultural backgrounds are more likely to have different attitudes towards oral and written communication channels (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas, 2013), it also implies that they would also prefer different kinds of communication (Woods, 2010). For that matter, the problem of conflict within diverse workforces at the ABC is a critical challenge that could undermines workforce efficiency, thereby threatening successful achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives. Description of the Proposed Solution In light of the many communication challenges that arise among workforces, as a result of the increasingly multicultural workplaces and diverse communities (Woods, 2010), it is imperative for the ABC to initiate and incorporate multicultural communication strategies within its organizational communications framework. Generally, the news agency should initiate multicultural communication workshops to teach its diverse workforces about cultural differences and cross-cultural competences that are critical for interacting with people from diverse cultural background. Through 1 hour workshop sessions, the organization’s workforce will acquire specific effective cross-cultural communication skills that will enable the agency to build strong cross-cultural working teams. The workshop should be tailored towards teaching the employees how varying behaviours, ethics, and attitudes, as well as beliefs influence diverse organizations and employees respectively. For instance, the employees must learn about how individuals from different cultural backgrounds perceive time, regulations, relations, and hierarchy, as well as independence, among other core aspects of organizational workplaces (Woods, 2010). Each session should be focused on different cultural aspects to equip the workforce with the relevant skills that will better prepare them to adapt to, and to negotiate conflicts arising from miscommunications or disagreements that result from cultural differences or diversities at the workplace. The first function of the workshop should be to identify the varying cultural practices and understandings that define the workplace diversity; these may either be implicit or the taken-for-granted explicit practices and languages (Lawrence, 2007). For instance, these include the verbal and nonverbal behaviours, general etiquette, cultural rituals, communication practices, as well as value orientations, and world views. The first one-hour session should focus on verbal behaviours including direct and indirect manner of speaking, language practices, language expectations, as well as face considerations. Nonverbal behaviours such as body language, facial expression, use of gestures, posture, and eye contact, in addition to the use of personal space, and time, among other things, can be focussed in the second session. General etiquette, including greeting, wellness and grieving practices as well as cultural rituals (entail everything that has to do with festivities and celebrations) can be taught in the third session. The fourth session can be dedicated on communication practices such as turn-taking in speech as well as teamwork and group participation. Most significantly, the workforce must also be taught about approaches to conflict resolution in a diverse workforce, which include techniques such as avoidance, accommodating, competing, compromising, as well as cooperating. At the end of the workshop, the workforce must also be taught about value orientations, that is, what is expected or hoped for within different cultural groups, as well as their unique world perspectives respectively. This multicultural communication workshop plan is not only desirable but also feasible within the scope of the corporation’s limited time and resources, especially because it is sharp and focused. Breaking down the plan into one-hour sessions allows implementers to focus on salient aspects of effective cross-cultural communication processes, thereby empowering ABC’s employees to acquire specific multicultural communication competence that would enable them to successfully negotiate relationships and conflicts at the workplace. Through these one-hour cross-cultural communication sessions, the workshop will enable ABC’s diverse workforce to identify and recognize different cultural practices and understandings, including verbal and nonverbal behaviours, general etiquette, cultural rituals, communication practices, as well as value orientations, and world views that are critical for effective multicultural communication. Summary Overall, this organizational communication proposal describes a step-by-step multicultural communication’s approach to resolving conflict within ABC’s diverse workforce. This effective multicultural communication plan should be adopted because organizational diversity poses serious communication challenges, which inevitably call for special multicultural communication skills. I am looking forward to implementing this plan and I am confident it will result to positive change in terms of empowering ABC’s diverse workforce to negotiate relationships and avoid conflicts. References Adler, R. B., Elmhorst, J., and Lucas, K. (2013). Communicating at work: Strategies for success in business and the professions (11th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Lawrence, J. (2007). Two models for facilitating cross-cultural communication and engagement. International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, 6 (6). pp. 73-82. Prause, D., and Mujtaba, B.G. (2015). Conflict Management Practices for Diverse Workplaces. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 6(3), pp.13-22. Woods, S. (2010). Thinking about Diversity-Related Conflict: Respect, Recognition and Learning. Henderson, Woods, LLC., Working Paper. Print. Read More