Cultural Tolerance or Ethnocentrism: Research of Glenmore Hotel Team
Executive Summary
In British society, culture cannot be underestimated. This is because it is very important in the life of people working in any organization. The major fact is the way culture might result to communication breakdown like in Glenmore Hotel because of this, it is very essential to investigate the communication skills that are already present among the staff and the cultural factors that might cause the communication breakdown.
However, the management needs to take some actions to solve these problems by guarding against ethnocentrism, implementing a tolerance policy, encouraging employee motivation, and having training on the host country’s language.
Background
Annually, the Glenmore hotel industry employs a good number of workers from a different cultures. In the past record, there is an observation that most of these immigrant workers have achieved good results in the company, as a result of this, there is an increase in communication breakdown. A lot of industries in the UK is facing the same problem and the government have no option than to pay attention on issues concerning culture in society.
Research has been made concerning culture because of this, no excuse should be given as a reason for not looking into the problems because there are solutions to them
Analysis Section 1: Communication Skills That Are Already present Among The Team In Glenmore Hotel
Glenmore Hotel team come from a different culture to work as a strong team. There is a clear observation and record that they have different communication skills among them. The key areas of these communication skills are: Note-taking, asking questions, empathy listening skills, dialogic listening skills, and appreciative listening skills.
One of the communication skills already present among the team in Glenmore Hotel is Note Taking. Said “Having necessary materials, such as a pen and textbook with you before the listening process”. This means that one needs to get prepared by having all the materials needed to write things down. For example, Max always takes notes and writes down important information on the menu and he expects his team to do the same way that is the reason he keeps paper and pen every time.
Another communication skill that is present among the staff in Glenmore Hotel is asking questions. “Ask questions to clarify or check your understanding.” Meaning that questions help to clear doubts on things someone is not sure and at the same time make one to understand more. For example, Jasmine believes that someone needs to ask questions when an instruction is given. “ I expected her to ask questions to make sure she understands” Jasmine. She expects her team worked to always ask questions when they do not understand what they are told to do before carrying out the task to avoid mistakes
Listening with empathy is another communication skill the team in Glenmore Hotel used. “ Attention to people’s verbal and nonverbal cues to identify the emotion being exhibited and to the speakers' situations, feelings or point of view”. It indicates, putting yourself in another person’s situation to understand how will feel. For example, Vivien who is not able to be arriving on time during meeting hours Understands how her fellow staff feels when she turns up late for meetings.
Moreover, Staff used dialogic listening skills to communicate in Glenmore Hotel. “ The experience of collaborating on a project allows people to construct a combined set of ideas that far exceed those put forth by one individual”. It shows, people coming together to share ideas by giving each person the opportunity to say something that will benefit one another before a decision is made. For instance, because Jed believes that people value options by group discussion, he told Helen and Max (chef) to discuss about the menu by sharing different ideas and opinions on what to prepare for the conference lunch.
Finally, another communication skill that is already present in among the team in Glenmore Hotel is an appreciative listening skill.” Appreciating acknowledging the speaker and the message in a positive way” This insinuates recognizing someone’s effort to motivate the person in her work. For example, Vivien feels that the effort of the sales staff are not recognized in the hotel they do must of the essential part of the job and making sure that the needs of the customers are met, and she expects the company to acknowledge them.
In conclusion, these communications skills, like note-taking, asking questions, empathy listening, Dialogic and appreciative listening played a great role among the team in Glenmore hotel knowing that they are from different cultures. However, some actions need to be taken because of some issues present, as a result of cultural differences in the industry.
Analysis Section 2: Cultural Factors That May Cause Communication Breakdown.
Globally, Culture has impacted a lot to our society, to get more knowledge on this, we have to look at some of the factors that might cause communication breakdown in Glenmore Hotel. These factors are: Power distance, Individualism, Time Orientation, Time focus, and Language Context sensitivity.
One of the cultural factors that led to communication breakdown is power distance. ”Everyone has a place some are high, some are low”. This signifies, that people from high power and low power distance culture will have a clash working together. For example, Jed and Max work together in the same company but from different cultures with a different beliefs. Jed is from a high distance culture that believes in participation in decisions making while Max is from another culture that believes that is the boss that has to decide and give instruction, this, therefore, led to communication breakdown.
Individualism towards culture can be the factor that caused a communication breakdown in Glenmore Hotel. “Individualistic culture view people as unique”. This means someone that likes self-achievement rather than a collective achievement because of their culture. To illustrate this, Max who is from an individualist culture cannot work with someone from a culture that value collective teamwork and because of this issue, there is a communication breakdown.
Time Orientation cause communication breakdown in Glenmore Hotel.” To any business, managers must have a shared understanding of time.”. When someone is working on the past and another on the present the staff will have a clash because of their culture. For example, Helen is from a culture that is present-oriented and expects Jasmine to work like her but she comes from past-oriented culture and this caused a communication breakdown.
Time Focus is another factor that can cause a communication breakdown. “language of time is as different among as the language of word”. This shows that someone that works on a fixed schedule will not be in agreement with someone that works on a flexible schedule and multitasks because of their culture. For example, Jed and Max like to keep time and work on a fixed schedule, and Vivien like flexibility and multitasking this lead to a breakdown in communication.
Another factor that causes communication breakdown is language.” When working abroad, knowledge of the host country’s language will greatly ease the stress of cultural adaptation and integration”. An indigenous person working with an immigrant that doesn’t understand the language will have problems. For example, Jasmine and Helen are from different cultures but are working as a team in Glenmore. Jasmine expects Helen to ask questions when she was asked to carry out a task but due to the Language barrier Helen was unable to do and this led to communication breakdown.
Context sensitivity might cause a communication breakdown. “cultures that emphasize the surrounding circumstances (or context(, make extensive use of body language, and take the time to build relationships and establish trust”. To illustrate this, a person from low context culture will clash with someone from high context culture when working together. for instance, In Glenmore hotel, Jed and Helen are direct and from a low context but Jasmine is indirect from a high context culture their disagreement led to a communication breakdown.
In Conclusion, Power distance, Individualism, Time Orientation, Time Focus Language, and Context sensitivity had a great impact mong in Glenmore Hotel Team, although there were some breakdowns in communication they were focused with their role.
Analysis 3: Actions For Management To Reduce Communication Breakdown.
It is very clear that communication breakdown in Glenmore is mostly caused by cultural factors for this problem to get resolved, the company should guard t against ethnocentrism, Implement cultural tolerance policy, Employee morale and motivation, and Having Trained on the host country’s language.
One recommendation is that the management should guard against ethnocentrism “Everyone is vulnerable to ethnocentrism------sojourner, immigrants and even members of the same culture”. This means that staff will feel free to interact among themselves without feeling inferior because they come from different cultures rather their differences should be accepted.
Another measure that the head of the department could use to reduce communication breakdown is by implementing cultural tolerance policy. “It is important to recognize, understand and respect cultural differences”. This indicates that cultural tolerance will help to develop trust to learn from one another by having understanding among themselves and also to work collectively without judging one another.
Employee motivation should be encouraged make them to have the zeal and passion in doing their task. “Employee morale and motivation are influenced by worker’s cultural preferences for individualism or group membership”. To explain this, the employers motivate their workers by giving them bonus or voucher to boost their morale by making them to believe that their efforts is being recognized.
The staff in Glenmore hotel could be encouraged by having language training of the host country.” However, the importance of learning about the host country’s language cannot be overestimated”. This shows that knowledge of the host country’s language will not be a barrier anymore. It will help in teamwork and make ease communication among the staff.
In summary, there are proves that communications breakdown have caused a lot of misunderstandings among the staff in Glenmore for the management to reduce the communication breakdown, they should focus on guarding against ethnocentrism, implementing cultural tolerance policy, employee motivation, and training on the host country’s language.
Conclusion
Generally, the Glenmore team has many skills. The key areas of the these communication skills are, Note-taking. Asking questions, empathy listening skills, dialogic and appreciative listening skills.
However, culture has impacted a lot in Glenmore staff and the key cultural factors are power distance, individualism, time orientation, time focus, Language, and contest sensitivity.
For this problem to be resolved, the management should guard against ethnocentrism, implement cultural tolerance, employee motivation, and training in the language of the host country.
Recommendations
The key recommendations that can be used for this report are
- The management should implement policy that will reduce discrimination
- The head of the department should always provide training for the staff
- Staff should be motivated by giving the bonus
- Team work should be encouraged for better output of product.
- The management should welcome the participation of the staff
