Stereotypes in Cross-Cultural Relationships: An Organizational View

This essay delves into the complexities of organizational behavior, focusing on the role and impact of stereotypes in cross-cultural relationships within a diverse workplace. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of relying on stereotypes when interacting with individuals from different cul...Read More

Organizational Behavior
Essay

Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is the study of the behavior of individuals in an organizational setting.
Effective organizational behavior management is imperative for the success and growth of any
business (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). An individual’s behavior in these organizational settings is
largely impacted by various factors including workplace environment, timings, nature of work
and organizational policies. Organizational behavior includes the study of organizational
employees’ culture, religion, social values, ethics and economic backgrounds. This report throws
light upon organizational behavior theories, practices and their significance in the organization.
The report also reflects upon various steps that must be taken to improve workforce diversity as
well as recent changes that the organizational behavior practices are witnessing.
Essay topic
“It is better to rely on stereotypes than to enter into a relationship with someone from another
culture without any idea of what they believe in.”
The increasing workplace diversity is a result of globalization (Hamilton, 2015). People from
different parts of the globe come together and work towards similar goals. This results in
building various long term relationships that largely impact organizations as well as individuals
associated with the organization. People coming from different religions, geographies and social
or economic backgrounds have a number of stereotypes associated with them. Stereotypes can be
based on religion, age, caste or geography (Bertolino, 2013) These stereotypes may or may not
relate with everyone but it is important to note that there is a reason why these stereotypes exist.
While collaborating with different people it is often wiser to be aware of the stereotypes that are
associated with the people as this helps the organizations in preparing for the future. For
example, Employees from France are associated with being unpunctual. Therefore, when hiring a
French employee, the manager can ensure to keep a certain amount of margin while giving them
work deadlines. If the employee, sticks to the deadline and completes the work on time, the there
is no drawback. However, if the employee is late as depicted by the stereotype, then too the
organization has enough time as margin for the required work.
Organizational behaviour theories

There are various theories that are associated with organizational behaviour. The theory in
discussion for this report is that of identical employer-employee behaviour. This theory suggests
that the organization must impose similar policies, goals, behavioral guidelines and ethical codes
for the employer as well as all the employees. Implication of this theory motivates employees to
work hard and builds an environment of decorum within the organization. This is specifically
useful when the organization is diverse and has people from different backgrounds working
together. As per the essay question above, this theory suggests that all the employees must be
treated equally rather than creating a bias on account of the stereotypes associated with them.
One key factors that affect employee growth in any business is ‘Motivation’ (Stein &
Cropanzano, 2011). There are various motivational theories that must be employed in the
organization in order to motivate employees to work hard. Maslow’s need hierarchy theory
creates a five levels of needs for every individual. Once the physical and social needs of
employees are fulfilled, organizations must focus upon fulfilling esteem needs of employees in
order to keep them motivated (Anderson, 2014). In a diverse environment, every individual
would have a different source of esteem. For example, according to the stereotypes, an American
employee’s esteem need are fulfilled by giving them additional power, a Chinese employee’s
esteem needs are fulfilled by giving them additional responsibilities on the other hand, an Indian
or African employee’s esteem needs are fulfilled by offering them additional pay. Therefore,
these stereotypes help organizations in understanding employee needs.
It is important to note that stereotypes play a role only in the beginning of any relationship. Once
the communication between the two parties develops, stereotypes are broken and decisions are
made based upon experiences.
Organizational problems form a part of every leading organization that exists today. As
organizations are getting more and more diversified, organization is beginning to face unique
challenges that need to be addressed. These problems are faced at managerial level, employee
level as well as organizational level (Laura, 2012). The following are some of the leading
problems faced by organizations in the process of building relationships with different people:
Communication problems: The most important problem that exists in building a diverse
organization wherein people from different backgrounds work together is the communication

problem faced by employees at large (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). Every individual has his or her
own unique local language and official language that the individual best communicates in. In
case of a diverse organization, there are various language barriers. In order to address the same,
all organizations establish their official language. All the organizations must provide training to
their foreign employees to learn the official language of the organization as well as the local
language of the country.
Cultural problems: Every individual comes from a different cultural background. Chinese
organizations have an active and dynamic organizational culture where people are often
screaming at each other. On the other hand, Japan has a calm culture and screaming at anyone is
considered rude and arrogant. According to the rules of their religion, Muslims need to pray 5
times in a day. Therefore organization with Muslim employees need to allow them required time
during the day to pray. Hindus on the other hand are restricted by religion to eat non-vegetarian
food. Hence organizations with Hindu employees must avoid or restrict non-vegetarian meals in
the common pantry area. Therefore in order to address this issue, training about different culture
must be given (Sartorius, 2011). Cultural issues may create a certain kind of bias on the basis on
religious practices, customs and language within the organization.
Social Issues: There are various issues that are created by society. These social norms of
employees need to be understood and respected while employing a diverse workforce (Hyde et.
al., 2013). For example, Muslim women are expected to cover their heads at all times while other
societies find it normal for women to wear skirts or pants. Certain societies restrict women from
working at night while some women prefer to work late in the night. All these are plain
stereotypes but they must be understood well in advance by organizations before hiring
employees from different backgrounds.
Demerits of stereotyping
Stereotyping of an individual in not wrong in fact it largely helps organizations in being prepared
for what they might encounter. At the same point of time, it is important to note that not every
individual may entirely adhere to the stereotype associated with them. Stereotyping employees
may lead to a negative work culture, judgment among employees towards each other, partial or
unfair treatment and reduced productivity within the organization.

Therefore it is recommended that organizational managers must adopt the positive side of
stereotyping. Diverse organizations are imperative for the success and growth of a business in
the current scenario. Negative aspects of applying stereotypes are also referred to as silent
destroyers of the organization. Hence, managers must use their discretion and keeping the
productivity of organization in mind, they must adopt to the positive aspects of stereotypes and
manage workforce in the manner that lets go of the negative impacts of stereotyping.
Recent developments in organizational behavior
Organizational behavior theories have seen a lot of changes since their inception. Traditional
theories have been edited and molded to suit the current workplace environment and changing
organizational needs. Various changes in organizational practices are as below:
Diverse organizations
Globalization in the world has allowed people from different parts of the world to work together
in a single organization. This has led to the creation of diverse workforce. Diverse organizations
improve organizational performance as people coming from different competencies are
amalgamated to work together (Lynn et. al., 2013).
Increasing role of women
Women have started playing a major role in organizational setting. Today women are not only
stepping outside their comfort zones but are also excelling in their respective fields and attaining
leadership roles in many organizational settings (Safa, 2018). Traditionally, most organizations
were male dominant.
Improving technology
Advent of technology has also allowed businesses to grow and has largely organized various
organizational practices and policies. Employee performance evaluation and customer
relationship is now being entirely managed by technology and this has led to increased efficiency
of the business.
Managers are counselors

Organizations have been taking various efforts in building long term relationships with their
employees. Earlier employees were simply puppets in the hands of management. Today, they
have a strong say and deep decision making authority. Managers organize counseling sessions in
their offices and try to understand their employees better. Employee goals are well aligned with
organizational goals to encourage employees to perform better.
To Conclude, Stereotyping is being largely adopted by various organizations owing to an
increasing number of diverse employees. There are various positives of building stereotypes. It
helps organizations in being prepared to handle the employee and it largely ensures the no
religious or culture sentiments are hurt. But on the other hand, it may lead to judging, biasness
and a negative workplace culture. Therefore in order to ensure employee productivity, managers
must learn to adopt the positive aspects of stereotyping while avoiding the negatives.

References
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