We live in a multicultural and globalized world and that means that it is very likely that you regularly interact with people from different countries and cultures in your daily life. These cultural differences can often lead to conflicts in the workplace because people do not understand each other well. In such cases, conflict coaching/training and in individual cases, mediation could be a good way to pre-empt or resolve existing conflicts between people from different cultures.
Conflicts due to cultural differences
What is culture? There are different definitions of culture. One of the definitions is that culture is the pattern of human activity and the symbolic structures that are associated with a group of people. ‘Our’ culture with the associated norms, values, and communication is self-evident to us. We are no longer aware of it. Differences in culture can therefore cause a slight shock reaction leading to communication problems. People from different cultures who have a conflict have difficulty understanding each other.
Dealing with cultural differences
Dealing with cultural differences can be very difficult. People from different cultures, for example in the workplace, can immerse themselves in each other’s culture. They can learn the symbols, rituals, and forms of communication from each other. You can learn what to say or to do at a particular time, such as while greeting. However, we see that this does not solve the larger issues. This is because people often experience problems based on underlying biases, values , and norms. When you dive into an unknown culture, you have to relearn a lot of things about that culture and unlearn a lot of preconceived notions/prejudices. This often causes feelings of unwillingness, frustration, insecurity, powerlessness, and sometimes even hostility because it triggers questions like ‘why should I’?.
Cultural diversity and internationalization offer opportunities
Based on research, companies and organizations perform better if their staff has a mixed cultural and ethnic background. A condition is, however, that the managers can deal with the mix of backgrounds well and are culturally aware. Companies with cultural differences in the workplace:
- often have a higher turnover;
- have better chances of survival;
- are more innovative, more creative, and solve problems better. This is because employees have different points of view;
- make better use of the international labor market because they recruit more talent from all over the world;
- do better in the market, because they know better what is going on among various customer groups (around the world) and can therefore respond more quickly to developments in the market;
- gain a better ‘reputation’ because of ‘diversity’ in the workplace.
Hire a (conflict/culture) coach/trainer or a mediator
Mediation has grown enormously in recent years. More and more people are discovering the advantages such as cost, time, and achieving a win-win situation. Looking for a suitable mediator for conflicts in cultural differences? Request a free, no-obligation quote here.
