Language Core Beliefs Domain Centered

¶ … Language

Core Beliefs

Domain Centered beliefs

Communication

The Conversation

Structuration

Identity/Self-Concept

Production and Reproduction of the Conversation

Interaction

Social Capital

Culture, Relationships and Structure

Sense making

Situational Leadership/management

Organization

Frames

Metaphors

Narratives

Structuring

Structure in and Structure out

Identity

Plasticity

One of the difficulties the manager is experiencing is that his or her business organization is experiencing an identity conflict. On one hand, in a modern commercial enterprise, the interaction of various employees must be characterized by impersonal exchanges, based upon a common culture of business. For example, when Angela goes to the Middle East, one of her responsibilities is creating a friendly working relationship with a client, not expressing her feminist or personal sexual self-concept that stands apart from that of the company she works for as an employee. But because our Western, American culture celebrates individualism, and upholds the values of pluralism, self-expression, and diversity, it is difficult for Angela and other corporate employees to put aside their self-concepts, and engage in impersonal interactions in the context of the workplace.

The problem with upholding diversity as a value, is very often 'my' diversity conflicts with 'your diversity,' or core beliefs about what is most important in life, and when an organizational culture becomes so fragmented, conflicts become personalized and politicized, rather than focus on the goals of the group. Better communication is needed for these fragmented workers to recreate a common goal. Instead of multiple identity narratives at war, a common work narrative is required.

A weekend or week of sensitivity training would be ideal, accompanied with education in how to communicate cross-culturally, rather than merely assert one's culture against the culture of another. A new language of tolerance must be generated that is spoken by all the workers, and the workers must learn a kind of plasticity of identity, so that although a Muslim woman may wear traditional dress at work, she is equipped to deal with how this may be perceived without generating hostility, and her hostile coworkers must learn how to work with people whose beliefs they disagree with personally, while they work toward a common organizational goal.

Question

Social capital is often defined as the network of social relationships within a given context. Social capital can have both positive and negative effects, as is evidenced in the benefits of 'teamwork,' of sharing ideas, of using distinct talents of different workers, and also of soliciting input from individuals with different experiences, both cultural and knowledge-based, that can add to the organization's efficiency. An it person, a person of Japanese-American background, and someone who has studied abroad, for example, could all add input to improve a marketing campaign directed to Far East clients.

However, in our diverse society where culture is inexorably bound to one's identity, and personal and cultural identity are often seen as synonymous, it is difficult to 'put aside' one's identity at the door of a friendly, informal American company. The workers' diverse social networks outside the company have created a clash of diverse identities, rather than generated a workplace made strong by diversity. The manager must create a common mission statement and goal for his workers. He must stress that tolerance is a founding principle of the workplace, but also stress the need for everyone to learn to speak the language of the American workplace and to occasionally work within the context of different cultures to accomplish the goals of the enterprise.

Question