Jimmy Kateeb
1.
Organizational diversity is a serious issue in the United States today. The workforce is
becoming more diverse with people from different cultures, religions, and more women are
entering the workforce than ever before. In many organizations women and minorities are often
excluded from formal and informal communication networks and by doing this it decreases
diversity and keeps the minority groups down and effects the output and job satisfaction of
workers in this group. Demographics of an organization create new challenges for organizational
communication and organizations need to deal with diversity to maintain equal working
conditions for employees. The different demographics affecting organizational diversity include
factors such as; race, religious beliefs, sex, and sexual orientation.
Stereotyping and discrimination are obstacles that affect diversity in a negative ways in
the workplace. These are two of the most common obstacles for communicating racial equality,
ethnic inclusivity and the true multiculturalism. Prejudice refers to negative attitudes towards an
organizations member based on his or her culture group identity (Miller 220). In today’s
workplace sex and sexual orientation should be added to this definition because negative
attitudes towards a group member’s sex or sexual orientation is also a form of prejudice and
disrupts the appropriate environment of the workplace. Discrimination refers to observable
negative behavior to the same groups. Organizations benefit from positive interpersonal
relationships in the workplace, stereotypes and discrimination affect the chances of positive
relationships and in turn hurt the overall productivity and profits of the organizations. The
concept of a true multicultural organization offers the organization a number of benefits but there
are some very serious barriers that need to be overcome to make this possible.
There are a number of different programs an organization can utilize to maintain or help
the transformation of communicating racial equality, ethnic inclusivity, or true multiculturalism
to their organization. The first thing an organization should do to promote diversity is have the
understanding that diversity is challenge and an opportunity rather than a nuisance that the
organization has to do to comply with laws. If the organization feels that diversity is a nuisance
there is little chance to sustain diversity over time. The workforce also needs to be educated
about diversity through diversity training. Next the organization needs to establish the culture as
a culture that promotes and appreciates diversity. There are five steps that are used to transform
an organization to organization that plans to achieve multiculturalism. They are leadership,
training, research, analysis and change of culture and human resource management systems, and
follow-up.
In the first step leadership, this shows that top management must be truly committed to
diversity. Top management must understand and expect diversity from employees and
management needs to lead by example. Second, employees must receive diversity awareness
training and skill building training. By doing this employee’s will receive the proper knowledge,
attitudes, skills and habits that are involved within diversity. In this step it involves changing
mind sets or stereotypes by promoting knowledge and acceptance. Third, the organization should
do their research about the organizations culture to identify if there any problems that need to be
fixed and if there are, what educational programs would be needed to fix these problems. The
next stage is change of culture and human resource management systems. This stage involves
and identifies ways that certain minority groups within the organization could be hampered by
the organizations current values. This stage is the most difficult stage for organizations to
accomplish. The organization needs to understand what different values each group within the
organization has and incorporate these values into ways in which the members can accomplish
work without disadvantage to the group doing the task. The last stage is follow-up; in this stage it
is important that the organization constantly checks on education, training, and the organizational
culture to make sure all programs are working and applicable to the groups that are employed.
When organization leaders are concerned with promoting diversity in the workplace they
should consider using the systems approach. This approach set examples that women and
minority groups are essential members of the organization. In the systems approach “Diversity
would be seen as an important avenue for the organization to adapt effectively to a turbulent
global environment. Systems scholars might address the integration of women and minorities
into formal and informal communication networks (Miller 234). The systems approach would
help the organization understand the values and needs of the groups they included in the
organizations communication. When this happens it would also give the chance for women and
minority group members to have a chance to move up in the organization removing the glass
ceiling and then this would show all other minority group members that the company is serious
about diversity and anyone can make it in the organization regardless of sex or race.
The government has set up policies to help ensure that the rights of minorities and
women are watched over because these groups have been discriminated against so often
throughout the history of the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 marked the beginning
of programs set up to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace. Affirmative action programs
were designed from the civil rights act “to remedy discrimination and increase the representation
of designated disadvantaged groups, namely, women and ethnic minorities” (Miller 228).
Organizations wanting to reach true multiculturalism can set up a variety of programs to
accomplish their goals and with hard work they can reach their goals, but the problem is not all
organizations want to, and these organizations will discriminate against minorities keeping them
as second class citizens and this is why affirmative action is needed. Affirmative action has
plenty of critics saying it stigmatizes workers or it emphasizes preferential treatment. But the
success of affirmative action is representing the rights of group members that are discriminated
against and giving them a fair chance to compete in the job market and in their organizations.
In 1980 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) stated that any sexual
harassment is a kind of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There are
a number of different communication behaviors that can be considered sexual harassment. This
law was set up to protect the rights of any employee that feels their working environment is
being threatened by sexual advances from fellow employees. Organizations must communicate
to employees that sexual harassment will not be tolerated at any level. Sexual harassment leads
to many communication problems in the workplace and could in some cases lead to the firing of
the offender.
Women face more barriers than men do in the workplace for the fact in our society
women are expected to take care of their children while their husbands work. In 1993 the Family
and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed, most federal employees are entitled to a total of up
to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for the following purposes: the
birth of a son or daughter of the employee and the care of such son or daughter; the placement of
a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care; the care of spouse, son,
daughter, or parent of the employee who has a serious health condition; or a serious health
condition of the employee that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of
his or her positions. This act allows women to return to their same or equivalent position and
they will receive the same benefits they had before leaving.
These programs and policies have offered plenty of cases of success to the rights of
women and minority workers. If an employee is being discriminated against this will affect the
employee’s job satisfaction and a low level of job satisfaction decreases an employee’s
productivity thus decreasing the profits of the organization. Discrimination in the workplace
clearly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so to discriminate against an employee breaks the
law and could lead to law suits. The government has set up policies to deter discrimination and
employers have set up a number of approaches and programs to help educate people about
diversity and help organization reach their goals as a multicultural organization. People need to
understand the different cultures and how people from different cultures use language to express
their selves and implement these practices in their diversity training programs.
2.
Today we live in a global economy and organizations need to be able to adapt to this to
truly benefit their selves. With the innovations in technology our world is becoming smaller and
smaller and organizations are able to communicate with a branch or a supplier on the other side
of the world in just seconds. With the use of communication technology organizations are able to
market their business to any place in the world. There are both pros and cons to globalization,
globalization affects many people differently, some people get filthy rich because of it and some
people lose their jobs because of it.
Without the innovations in technology it would not be possible for globalization to exist.
Globalization allows for “rapidly developing processes of complex interconnections between
societies, cultures, institutions, and individuals worldwide” (Miller 259). An example of this
would be Microsoft’s tech assistants working and living in India. Communication technologies
and the ease of air travel have made it customary for the ease of globalization. American
companies like McDonalds and Wal-Mart can have their central offices in the United States but
they can still have stores all over the world. Wal-Mart runs their central office out of Arkansas
and from Arkansas they can communicate with every other branch shipping orders all over the
world using communication technology.
In most cases communication technology is a great thing that makes our lives easier and
more efficient but in terms of globalization, the advances in communication technology have
made globalization a reality and in turn has cost Americans a large number of jobs. The capitalist
society we live in is set up to for companies to compete with each other creating lower prices for
consumers. The way big organization are able to get prices so low is by outsourcing jobs to
developing countries and these organizations get the same work done at a fraction of the price.
Corporations in developed countries like the United States have moved their manufacturing
plants to Third World countries like China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Even if a company wanted
stay in the United States and not outsource jobs to other developing countries the company
would have a hard time staying in business because most competitors would be making an equal
product much cheaper and selling that product cheaper. The products we buy that are made in
other countries do not have to follow the same laws that we do here in America, like child labor
laws and health standards that we follow in this country saving organizations millions of dollars
more.
Globalization affects many different groups differently. I believe that globalization has
actually hurt the American economy for the fact that we do not manufacture goods like we use to
and with all the debate about the creation of jobs in the country today it is pretty safe to say
outsourcing is what happened to these jobs. Americans need to look elsewhere than the
manufacturing of good to create jobs because of globalization. For business owners of
organizations, globalization has been great they get labor much cheaper, they don’t have to
worry about strict American laws, and they are always open somewhere in the world.
“Globalization results in time and space compression, changing communication patterns and
perceptions. In the global workplace everything moves quickly – you can be in Tokyo one day
and in Cleveland the next, and it’s always the beginning of the workday somewhere on the globe.
Space and time are no longer directly connected” (Miller 261). In the process of the rich getting
richer it hurts the majority of Americans from the loss of work. I would determine that there is a
direct correlation between the advances in communications technologies to the loss of American
jobs.
A combination of the words "globalization" and "localization" used to describe a product
or service that is developed and distributed globally, but is also used to accommodate the user or
consumer in a local market. This means that when organizations are using glocalization they are
going to tailor their products to meet the needs and customs of the population they are serving.
One example of glocalization would be McDonalds in India, diets in India are often impacted by
the many different religions in India. Hindus don't eat beef, so there is no beef on the
McDonalds' menu in India. Muslims don't eat pork, so for the McDonalds Corporation in India
not only is there no beef, there is no pork or pork byproducts in any McDonald’s restaurant in
India. India has a high population of vegetarians so about half of the menu at McDonalds in India
is vegetarian, which makes it a good choice for customers who want some healthy options
whether or not they are vegetarian.
When organizations want to use glocalization it is important that the organization
communicates with the area they want to glocalize in. Organization must be able to prove to their
external stakeholders (customers) that they will be able to provide them with products that meet
their needs. Before glocalization can be accomplished the organization must be able to
communicate to the area that they can meet these needs if they cannot do this there is little
chance for success. This involves studying the customs of the area they want to expand in to and
see if they will be accepted. For the McDonalds in India, the McDonalds Corporation would
have to test the products to make sure they could offer these products in a way that meets the
McDonalds standards; which is fast, tasty food at inexpensive prices. To meet the needs of the
internal stakeholders the McDonalds Corporation would have to train their American upper
executive management in the cultures of the people from India because these would be the
employees that would be going over there and opening the restaurants. These employees would
have to understand how to communicate appropriately with the people from India that will be
working at the restaurants.
3.
Communication technology is a constantly changing phenomenon that members of an
organization will have to change with to keep up with the workplace that is becoming more
innovative and efficient. Communication technology makes the world a smaller place where one
organization can be centrally located at an office and communicate to all other locations from
their main location. In the past decade communication technology has made great leaps.
Communication technology has become much faster, the dial up days of internet are now over.
With everyone having high speed internet we can send a message to anyone in the world in a
matter of seconds. Today most people walk around with computers on them, most phones have
the ability to check email and send and open files. So to send and receive email is a simple as
hitting a few buttons on your phone rather than having to be at your desk in your office. These
wireless networks are in my opinion the greatest advance in communication technology in the
past ten years. Communicating with the organizations stakeholders has become much easier for
organizations to accomplish with the common use of the internet. Organizations are able to sell
and market products to anywhere in the world with use of the internet any major organization
today has sophisticated ways of promoting, advertising and explaining the purpose of the
organization to the world, a decade ago this was not as common. If an organization is not on the
World Wide Web they probably do not have much of a chance of succeeding. Computer
conferencing is another example of how communication technology has come so far in the past
decade. It has allowed organizations to conduct business meetings in a conference room with
people from all over the world with video feeds.
Communication technology greatly enables social dimensions of the workplace by
allowing fast efficient communication by email, video conference or a variety of other
technological ways. The employee becomes more efficient when using communication
technology, but there can be occasions when communication technology constrains the social
dimensions of the workplace. When people communicate via email, conference call, or another
method of communication technology, they are not able to pick up on nonverbal cues that
coworkers would observe in face to face meetings and this “filters out” (Miller 241)
communication cues. What communication technology makes up for with efficiency it can in
some cases constrain the communication of nonverbal clues that a worker would receive in a
face to face meeting.
There are three theories of organizational technology that we discussed in class. The first
model was the media richness model; this model was the first model to be used by organizations.
The next two models dual-capacity model and social information processing model came onto
the scene later. The following two models were implemented to address perceived weaknesses
with the media richness model.
“The media richness model was proposed by Daft and Lengel (1984, 1986) as a
framework for understanding the choices organizational members make about communication
media use” (Miller 242). The media richness model says that employers should use the
appropriate media for the appropriate message. Different organizational task vary in their level of
ambiguity. “Ambiguity refers to the existence of conflicting and multiple interpretations of an
issue” (Miller 242). For instance, if management wanted to inform employees about a meeting it
would be appropriate to send a proper email with something in the subject line stating there was
a meeting coming up. This would be considered lean media and as simple communication. On
the other end of the spectrum, if executives wanted to communicate a problem to all store
managers in a region and wanted to receive feedback, it would be appropriate to have a video
conference call to express all problems and open lines of communication to resolve the problem.
This would be considered rich media because the executives would want instant feedback, the
use of multiple cues, and the use of natural language.
The social information processing model is the next model. “In adopting a social
information processing model, these theorists argue that communication between coworkers,
supervisors, customers, and others affects media usage” (Miller 244). This theory states that
workers will base their levels of communication technology on social information they have
heard from people within their organization. People from the social information processing
model approach the use of communication technology as a complex function of the objective
characteristics of the task and media, past experience and knowledge, individual differences, and
social information. An example of this would be a Human Resource department that just
received new Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) software and this software was to
keep track of all employee files and records. One of the workers has a friend in a different HR
department that was given the same HRIS software to use and she told her friend that she had a
terrible time using this software and it made her job more difficult. Even though the software is
made to make the HR workers job easier and all it took was some simple training to master the
software but the workers friend did not receive the training. This is a social influence that
affected the way technology was used in an organization.
The second alternative to the media richness theory is the dual-capacity model. This
theory suggests that every organizational message has the ability to carry two kinds of messages.
“The first of these mediums is data-carrying capacity, defined as the degree to which a medium
is able to effectively convey task–relevant data” (Miller 246). This means that some media will
have the same data carrying capacity in all organizational settings. The second is symbol-
carrying capacity. “The symbol-carrying capacity of a medium can be manifest in several ways.
First, media can be more or less able to convey the core values and assumptions that constitute
the organizations culture. Second, a communication medium can attain the status of symbol apart
from the actual message being transmitted.”(Miller 246) “For example, a meeting conducted via
video conferencing can carry symbolic messages about the importance of and technological
sophistication of the meeting participants.”(Miller 246)
Technology is becoming more and more present in organizational life and when studying
technology in the workplace there are many factors involved. Technology offers employees the
opportunity to avoid work, whether it is an employee chatting with friends or paying his bills
online, this is time the employee should be working and this cut’s into productivity. Many
companies have policies where the monitor employees computers to see if this is a problem.
“Almost 80% of U.S. firms conduct surveillance on their employees. Half monitor phone call by
listening or recording” (Miller 27). Organizations need to state in employee handbooks that this
is not appropriate behavior.
To avoid possible problems with communicating technology, organization should offer
training to employees with new technology the company receives. Communication technology
can be very expensive for organizations so it is important for organizations to budget money for
new technologies and hire employees with technological backgrounds to help the company move
forward. Finally some people can feel overburden from an overload of information such as
emails, pagers, faxes, cell phones, and so on. This can result in too much information and
actually hurt productivity. Ways of dealing with these problems could be to increase the
flexibility of employees and more teamwork.