The Importance of Cultural Awareness in an Organization
Organizational culture is the conditioning of employees into an ideology that has a direct link with how they behave and interact. This is impacted by culture, customs, and the economics, and it has a direct impact on defining what is acceptable and expected (Tarver, 2021).
How does an organization accurately identify the elements of its own culture?
According to Twin (2021), an organization correctly recognizes its own culture by describing its values and principles in its purpose and vision, which are helped by rules and policies. The aspects are led and identified holistically by the rule of law, one’s fiduciary obligation, and industry norms.
An organization can develop its own value elements by doing in-depth research on many issues such as communication, company vision, and efficiency (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
How does it go about promoting critical awareness of culture among its personnel?
As workplace changes have been characterized by high presence, high speed, and high variety, critical awareness plays a vital role in the globalized economy. As a result, there is a need to improve the work team inside the company so that it can function as a unit and fulfill the firm’s and its workers’ joint goals (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
Promoting critical cultural awareness among employees is crucial to the organization’s development and overall success. Employees’ duties and responsibilities must be clearly defined by the organization. Employees must also understand the company’s structure and guiding values. The organization must spend in training and supervision to ensure compliance and respect for the direction and culture that is being fostered (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
Does cultural awareness play a role in organizational success?
Cultural awareness is critical to organizational performance because it finds and acknowledges variations in background and ethics and strives to develop synapses to decrease and remove gaps (Kopp, 2021).
Having cultural awareness makes employees more confident, builds their self-esteem and increases their profitability as they feel more involved and appreciated. This also leads to high employee retention and low turnover (Loehr, 2017).
Is a global organization, in the 21st century, obligated to provide opportunities for its employees to become more culturally sensitive or increase their cultural awareness through an understanding the cultural system of values, assumptions, and symbols?
Global firms owe it to their staff to give opportunity for them to become more culturally aware. Cultural awareness influences performance, which in turn influences the success of a firm. Being culturally sensitive provides for improved interpersonal skills, allowing an individual to maximize interactions with customers, workers, and shareholders. It is critical for company success to be able to problem-solve and respond to a turbulent market (Team, 2021).
What do they stand to lose if they don’t?
In multinational work environments and cultural backgrounds, it is critical to achieve a cultural system that accommodates and respects everyone, and to use this difference and diversity in the interest of achieving the organization’s goals and vision in a way that helps everyone conform, work, and respect the organization’s values and standards.
It is critical for huge corporations aspiring to global expansion to absorb multiple cultures and values from the countries and worlds into which they wish to develop. Distinct individuals have different cultures, thus it is critical for a successful firm to grasp this difference and be able to exploit and benefit from it (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012).
They are not only will lose their stand on the market but also their organization will not be a sustainable and healthy.
Conclusion
Cultural awareness is required for every organization’s development, and it serves as a catalyst for developing guiding principles intended at pushing and consolidating the organization’s success.
References
Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (v. 1.0). (2012, December 29). Lardbucket. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/cultural-intelligence-for-leaders.pdf licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0
Kopp, C. M. (2021, August 23). Cross Culture Definition. Investopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cross-culture.asp
Loehr, A. (2017, March 16). A deeper look at cultural awareness in the Workplace. RSS.
Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.anneloehr.com/2017/03/16/cultural-awareness-in-the-workplace/.
Tarver, E. (2021, September 2). What is Corporate Culture? Investopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporate-culture.asp
Team, T. I. (2021, June 9). How do interpersonal skills influence a business culture?
Investopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/030415/how-do-interpersonal-skills-influence-business-culture.asp
Twin, A. (2021, December 30). Business ethics: Fair business policies within
controversial subjects. Investopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-ethics.asp
Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Managing in the Global Economy (BUS 5211) written assignment by Fristy Tania in September 2022
