Managing Cultural Diversity: Communication Challenges And Ethical Issues In Australian Organizations

Importance of Effective Communication in Diverse Workforce

Question:

Critically analyse and discuss the varied communication challenges that leaders should expect to handle while managing cultural diversity in the organizations in Australia.
 

Since the workforce around the globe is becoming highly global as well as more diverse culturally, the leaders within the organization are facing communication challenges as they need to communicate in effective manner interpersonally, intercultural as well as within the groups (Okoro & Washinton, 2012). Due to rise in the internationalization of organizations as well as global competitiveness, the management of human diversity is a daily challenging routine for the major businesses (Lauring, 2011). Therefore this essay critically analyses and discusses the varied communication challenges that leaders should expect to handle while managing cultural diversity in the organizations in Australia.

Using thorough academic literature relevant to the topic as well as publically available data this essay will also find out that how the leaders can successfully handle and address the ethical issues that arise in Australian organizations because of cultural diversity. Finally this essay will critically analyse an optimal leadership mix of styles or behaviours that should be aligned while managing culturally diverse workplaces. The leadership styles that would be finally suggested should be highly flexible and such that they can be adopted in appropriate manner by the organizations in Australia. Thus with the help of this essay we will try to  build an understanding  regarding management  of multicultural workforce as well as behavioural practices  by focussing on  critical strategic issues faced by leadership as well as employee behaviour. 

While analysing the strategies of business communication it has been found that effective group as well as interpersonal communication is very much important for the organizational success as well as within the organizations because of growing workforce diversity along with intercultural relationships existing within businesses (Bovee & Thill, 2008) . There have been studies that show that if the workforce diversity consequences are ignored it certainly impacts the performance along with the productivity of the organization and finally it results in undermining the overall objectives of the business performance. For example Goldman Sachs, an international organization operating in Australia too  employ more than 30,000 employees  who represent more than 160  nationalities and the discussions in Goldman Scah’s  in relation to workforce diversity   is not just anymore a domestic issue rather it has become an international challenge (Kanu, 2008) .

Multiculturism is very vital aspect of the diversity existing in the Australian workforce and as the research suggests the organizations in Australia are one of the most culturally diverse ones across the globe (Dunn et al 2001; Lewis, French 2000). During the year 2012-13 , due to the net  immigration  a large number of  population size was added  to the Australian  territories as well as states  and during 2012,  27.7 percent  out of the total population Australia was born out of the country ( ABS 2013). It is not just the population belonging to varied cultures is increasing but it is the level of diversity which is also increasing along with the regular immigration waves.

Multiculturalism in Australian Workforce

Although, in   the constantly changing multicultural environment, good communication is critically very important, but this intercultural communication also creates a tough challenge for the leaders at their workplaces (Sadri & Tran, 2002) . Managing diversity for the leaders is much more than just acknowledging the differences that exist between the people. Thus studies show that it is very much important that the business communicator needs to adapt to the rapidly changing responsibilities as well as the changing work relationships (Flatley, Rentz, & Lentz, 2012) . In current highly diverse  workforce there are several  communication challenges that the leaders have to face  and these include skills, experiences, attitude of employees towards work, traditions, outlooks and backgrounds  and all these communication issues  definitely impact the communication at the  individual workplaces (Bovee & Thill, 2008) . If the organizations face the challenges due to diverse workforce like coexistence with their business partners as well as the community, the managers as well as the leaders have to face the challenges like motivating the culturally diverse employees as well as creating harmony amongst the workers (Okoro & Washinton, 2012).

Globalization along with, economic improvements in Australian business has lead to rapid and much more internationalization of the organizations in Australia. Thus in the Australian organizations  that are running globally like Qantas, Sainsbury , etc. effective cross cultural communication is being required  for running the businesses in efficient as well as smooth manner (Duggan, 2013). However the leaders or the managers have to face several challenges, issues as well as conflicts while handling the employees who belong to diverse cultures, social backgrounds as well as have different habits. In such cases cross cultural competency emerges as very vital and critical tool for the leaders in order to manage such challenges that impact employee performance (Matveev & Nelson, 2004) .

The varied dimensions present in the national culture can also give rise to difficulties   that give rise to cross cultural communication conflicts. The five main cultural orientations that have been emphasised by scholars and that also impact the cross cultural competencies are:  power distance; uncertainty avoidance; performance orientation; individualism along with the richness of the communication context (Matveev & Nelson, 2004) . Nations like Australia, United States and Sweden show lower power distance orientation and interactions that occur between employees or managers belonging to different power distance orientation can result in dissatisfaction in either of the two groups or parties (Klimina, 2011). Language also acts as a major communication barrier for leaders while managing culturally diverse employees in an organization as it can result in miscommunication or misunderstanding   amongst the staff in the workplace. Mostly misunderstandings are bound to occur when the leader or manager and the employees are not speaking the same language. Since both the leader and the employees belong to different cultures and make use of totally different languages, so particular level of language consistency while speaking or interacting is required to be on same platform in order to avoid miscommunication.  Such kind of miscommunication can result in problems so as to achieve mutual consent regarding certain issues that are conflicting by nature and finally result in dissent as well as dispute, along with conflicts as well as negative emotions (O’Leary & Weathington, 2006) .

Challenges of Intercultural Communication for Leaders at the Workplace

In some situations non-verbal communication challenges also might arise for leaders while managing cultural diversity in Australian firms. Non-verbal communication is considered to be very vital  part of business communication as the leader needs to find out the  non-verbal  clues in case the verbal  messages are  vague or unclear, mainly in the case when  different kind of languages are being involved. Different kind of methodologies are  used by every culture  for understanding the postures , touch, silence, physical appearances,  gestures  as well as emotional  expressions of the employees. For example in Anglo-Australian culture, all through the communication maintaining continuous eye contact is a norm and it is considered to be a sign of honesty as well as indicates deeper level of interest in the topic of discussion, but in case of various other culture for example in Japan, maintaining this kind of eye contact while communicating can be taken as a sign of disrespect. Thus  the differences in  analysing as well as understanding  the non-verbal communication  by the managers or leaders  can thus result in misunderstanding , on the other hand  differences in interpretation can result in conflicts or can also result in escalation of the conflicts that already exist (LeBaron, 2003). 

Leadership is considered to be  a very vital part of every organization but  with  more  technological developments and growing globalization the capacity as well as functions of  leaders are  turning out to be more complicated (Punnett, 2004) . Therefore the cross-cultural managers need to visualise this change in the form of a challenge as well as a unique opportunity both for individual development as well as beneficial for organizational growth. Along with this to cope  up with these rapid  transformation leaders should respond in rather very swift manner to  the effects of  globalization, technology as well as demographics , so that they can offer  specific  development of job skill in relation to work ethics, continuous learning as well as global leadership (Aggarwa, 2011) . Global leaders in such cases needs to develop mainly their interpersonal skills  so that they can deal in effective manner with racial  conflicts  that might occur in culturally diverse workforce as well as simultaneously keep on  developing individuals  along with groups at their workplace (Byrd, 2007) .

One of the highly important variables that the leaders need to consider while tackling the culturally diverse workforce in Australian organizations is the cultural context (Gutierrez, Spencer, & Zhu, 2012) . Communication styles, work ethics, management labour relationships along with behaviours keep on varying form one nation to the other. That is why leadership competence is being visualised or perceived in different manner in different countries (Kowske & Anthony, 2007) . For example in high context nations like Japan, South Korea etc.  the staff prefers more to take indirect messages  and they depend more on  nonverbal  codes , whereas the employees belonging to low context  culture nations like Australia, United  Kingdom etc. the employees prefer to communicate in direct manner and try to  develop or inculcate maximum information through messages (Hackman & Johnson, 2004) .

Cross-Cultural Competency for Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution

 ifferent kinds of cultural groups in the organizations nurture different cultural expectations and thus their expectations from their leaderships are also different and this certainly impacts the managers’ as well as the employee behaviours in the organization (Strand, 2011). Thus the employees know very well the importance of their leader’s positive response towards individual differences of cultures without any personal bias (Nguyen & Umemoto, 2012) .  With the help of such actions the leaders are capable of fulfilling effectively their tasks towards development of a multicultural workforce along with a strategic foresight that breeds organizational innovativeness. The leaders should be objective while practicing leadership without any biases or making any assumptions. The leaders should learn to lead by example so that the diver workforce starts believing in ethical behaviours. This can be done by giving due respect to the differences amongst others or by keeping aside any personal biases, and this needs to be seriously followed by leaders in the organization (Roy, 2012) .

The biggest challenge in current scenarios for managers is to manage the rising diversity at the workplace (Mujtaba, 2010) . One of important steps that the leaders can do for making and creating a better work environment is treating the employees in fair manner as well as in a just manner on the basis of their actual performance or individual merits, without even considering about the age, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion of the employees at diverse workplace (Lundrigan, Tangsuvanich, Wu, & Mujtaba, 2012) .  For example Starbucks a global organization has highly diverse workforce and is considered as one of the most ethical organization across the globe (Ethisphere, 2013) . It strives and creates a work culture that not just values but also respects the spirit of inclusion as well as diversity. In order to do so it has integrated both inclusion and diversity in its leadership’s core competencies. It is expected from all its leaders that they will demonstrate inclusion in some way or the other (Starbucks, 2014) .

Diversity can be effectively managed with the help of managers as people get directly impacted as well as persuaded by the other people belonging to higher status (Jones & George, 2011) . Cultural competence is very vital in order to manage diversity in workplace. One of the ethical aspect that the managers in Starbucks, Australia practice  is they treat each and every employee  without even considering their gender, age , religion  or ethnicity etc. One best method that leaders adopt for gaining cultural competence is to self-assess them with the help of cultural competence tool. Leaders can also make use of an activity that is to organize events especially for socialising with the workforce so as to interact as well as to understand them in better manner. For example in order to  show the ethical aspect of Starbucks  towards not just employees but also towards partners, suppliers , environment and the customers , it started  CAFE practices , a program  that “ Sets  basic social , environmental and quality criteria, which Starbucks verifies” (Elder, Lister, & Dauvergne, 2014 , p. 80).

Cultural Orientations and Communication Conflicts

It is basically the culture which is depicted by the upper management that impacts the behaviour of its managers as well as its employees all across the organization (Hinkin & Tracey, 2010) . The upper management at IBM Australia also adopts a culture that truly embraces the culture that allows its partners to take a compressed week, thus giving them an option of working more hours in a day, thus fewer workdays. The managers at IBM are asked to consider ethical values as well as practices while managing the workforce and partners. For example while recruitment of individuals both the managers as well as partners play an active role while choosing their future partners (Marques, 2008) . This helps in making sure that there is less bias whereas more opinions during the process of selection. The leaders are also given effective training in most of the Australian Organizations like Woolworths and Coles. 

The influencing process practiced by the leaders as well as the followers in order to achieve their organizational objectives successfully with the help of change is called leadership (Lussier & Achua, 2010) . Equally important is implementation of right leadership style in various conditions so as to get the best outcomes. In case of diverse teams, people belong to different age, sex, sexual orientation, race geographic regions etc., thus it becomes really challenging for the leaders to find and implement the best leadership style, which works out best for everyone. A leader plays major role in implementation of effective culture within an organization. Diverse companies do have certain advantages, but in case the leader does not do their duties in right way it can cause certain issues. For example Glass Ceiling is seen in many organizations where women and minority are stopped or a barrier is created for them to reach top position in leadership, but by adopting this leadership model these organizations restrict their chances of success.  For example Mrs. Indra Nooyi, is the best example of topmost leadership in PepsiCo who has emerged as world’s 100 most powerful women’s list as CEO of the company (PaulienÄ—, 2012).

The theory of Path-Goal Leadership is considered to be best for managing culturally diverse workforce as in this the main focus is being goal oriented for the organization. The leaders adopting Path-goal theory are found to be highly flexible, giving directions, supportive and believe in rewarding their followers. Thus such leaders make their work teams productive, cooperative and focussed through proper encouragement. Such leaders help in removal of the barriers and regularly keep on motivating the employees; this finally helps in improving and increasing the work effectiveness and work satisfaction along with group effectiveness. It has been found that  path-goal styles of leadership has statistically  positive as well as significant relationship with the  group effectiveness,  of diverse workforce and Instrumental leadership  shows the  strongest correlation . Thus it can be said that path-Goal leadership is the best for the leaders to handle culturally diverse work teams (Dixon & Hart, 2010) .

Language as a Communication Barrier

For example Mikael Ohlsson, IKEA a Swedish home products organization mentions that his leadership style in relation to diversity is being vision driven when looking from business point of view   , but its foundation is value driven. On the same pitch Brian Moynihan, Bank of America leader, believes that leadership style for managing cultural diversity in Australia is linked to customer satisfaction (Groysberg & Connolly, 2013). According to him if the inclusion scores along with internal diversity scores are stronger, it will make the employees feel much precious as well as valued and thus they will be serving the customers better and finally the organization will be successful. Leadership style that most of the CEOs support for promoting diverse culture is inclusive culture. The one in which  the employees get enough chances to contribute towards the organization’s success as their authentic selves, where  their talents are being leveraged and they are respected  along with receiving a sense of connectivity. According to David Thodey of Australian telecommunication giant Telstra, an inclusive culture is the one where irrespective of your caste, creed, gender, race, physical ability or sexual orientation, the employee gets to fulfil their personal objectives by simply aligning them with the objectives of the company. The leaders should value the employees for the way they contribute towards the business (Groysberg & Connolly, 2013).

There exist several explicit differences in cultures, mainly in terms of attitudes, behaviours and values exhibited by the individuals and this kind of divergence does impact the leaderships in organizations (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). Transformational leadership is being more valued one in collectivist culture as the subordinates correlate with it more and they are attracted towards the transformational leadership traits, mainly the traits that are more focussed on achieving collectivistic organizational goals as well as sharing a common mission at their workplace. Transformational and transactional leadership theories find a universal application across various cultures as they can adapt to different settings of different cultures (Avolio & Bass, 2004) . The Australian leaders show more preference towards transformational leadership style. Leadership being a process in which others are being influenced and make them agree regarding what is to be done and how it can be finished in effective manner, the behaviour exhibited by the managers impacts the outcomes. In Australian context both autonomy and freedom are very important, thus the transformational features of leadership style does serve this purpose. The lower power distance   indicates a more egalitarian leadership approach to be adopted in Australian organization (Holt, Bjorklund, & Green, 2009).

Moreover the cultural context of Australian organizations depicts an equal as well as harmonious leader-subordinate relationship as the role of leader or manager is more of a coordinator. The leaders in Australian organizations encourage direct disagreement and promote open discussions while resolving any issues or disputes in order to avoid the risk of being misinterpreted.  Since the managers as well as the employees grow in egalitarian business environment prevailing in Australian organizations, thus indicating that the managers are just perceived as someone who just needs to delegate and coordinate the work at workplace. Moreover the leaders belonging to egalitarian cultures are more bothered about the progress and they support individualism. Thus they are more attentive being visionary leaders and give intellectual stimulation to subordinates while articulating the goals and they relate with the employees as well. 

5. Conclusion

In most of the  Australian organizations  cultural diversity is very critical  to achieve higher productivity as well as better work performance, thus  both the success of the company along with  the alignment of culturally diverse workforce  are some of the challenges that needs to be handled by the leaders. There are mainly communication challenges that the leaders face while handling workforce diversity. There are several challenges that leaders have to tackle in cross-cultural communication because significant amount of cultural differences amongst the communicators can end up in miscommunication. Miscommunication or sometimes misinterpretations can happen amongst the managers and their employees as they belong to different nationalities or come from varied ethnic backgrounds (Okoro , 2012).

The leaders in current scenario very well know that diversity of workforce helps in innovation and results in better decision making, which finally results in better growth. That is why effective leaders are very well aware that particular skills are very important for developing a diverse and successful workforce. Thus the managers or leaders should understand the discrimination as well as the impacts of discrimination; secondly the leaders need to recognize their personal prejudices as well as biases. Diversity is not just related to differences amongst the people or groups in organizations, rather it is about the differences in individuals. Every individual is unique in itself and that person does not represent or speak for entire group and thus the leaders should be willing to change the organization if need be. The success of diversity management is relying on the capability of manager to analyse what is best in favour of the organization based on the teamwork as well as the dynamics of workplace.

With organizations becoming more globalised, the cultural diversity amongst the employees is on the rise, thus the leaders should find out the appropriate strategy that can enhance their team’s productivity. The leadership style that needs to be followed is the Path-Goal leadership style, where everyone needs to value as well as respect the existing differences in cultural, while learning from each other. They should adapt towards the diverse team members and should try to best meet the organizational objectives. Transformational leadership styles are also considered to be applicable in case of culturally diverse organizations. Thus it is vital to note that different kinds of cultures have different values and norms towards the style of leadership as they show different concepts regarding the manner in which reality should be viewed. Even the Australian organizations show the  more preference towards transformational leadership style  as it is participative,  cooperative as well as  consultative  while making decisions and dealing with diverse workforce.  

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