Workplace Behavior: Language's Impact in New Zealand

This essay explores the significant impact of language on workplace behavior within the unique cultural context of New Zealand. The essay highlights New Zealand's bilingual nature, focusing on the influence of Maori, English, and NZ Sign Language, as well as the informal Kiwi English. It examines how language affects employee participation and engagement, using Air New Zealand as an example of a company that integrates Maori culture and language into its operations to promote employee involvement and achieve positive outcomes. Furthermore, the essay discusses the importance of language in fostering workplace flexibility and promoting cross-cultural communication, emphasizing the need for organizations to acknowledge and accommodate the diverse communication needs of their stakeholders. The essay concludes by stressing the value of language learning and its role in building positive workplace relationships, encouraging organizations to develop policies that support language acquisition as a means of empowering employees and enhancing cooperation. The paper draws on various research articles to support its claims.

Running head: Workplace Behavior 1
Workplace Behavior
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation

Workplace Behavior 2
Language is a crucial cultural factor when it comes to workplace behavior. New Zealand
is a bilingual country since the country supports about three official languages (Turnbull, 2018).
They include; Maori, English, and NZ Sign language. In addition, most New Zealanders use the
kiwi language which is the local New Zealand English. The kiwi language kiwi often includes a
lot of informal language such as swear words and slang. This makes it difficult for migrants to
understand this form of English mostly for those who are trying to adapt to new communication
styles.
In New Zealand, language influences workplace behavior in different ways. To begin
with, language promotes employee participation and engagement in workplaces. For example,
Air New Zealand is at the forefront of promoting culture through language. Air New Zealand is
particularly critical when it comes to its internal culture since its essential in the achievement of
outstanding customer satisfaction as well as superior commercial outcomes (Air New Zealand
Ltd, 2019). In addition, the airline recognizes Maori culture to be instrumental in forming New
Zealand’s identity. Therefore, the Airline has woven the Maori culture and language into its
business hence promoting employee participation and engagement in its business operations.
Secondly, language is also a crucial factor in promoting flexibility in the New Zealand
workplace. For instance, most Maori people are powerful political, business and social leaders
and are therefore respected and valued across the New Zealand Society (Linton, Boersma,
Traczyk, Shaw & Nicholas, 2016). This means no business can afford to ignore the specific
communication needs of customers, employees, trading partners, suppliers, investors, and
competitors. Therefore, more organizations are promoting the learning of the language so as to
be competent in Te Reo Maori. This aids to increase flexibility in working with different
languages and cultures as well as promoting the sustainability of the language.

Workplace Behavior 3
New Zealand has a wide range of cultures and language is a crucial cultural factor that
may further influence New Zealand society and commerce. For example, through cross-cultural
communication, positive and engaging workplace relationships can be further developed hence
bringing the society together (Kimber & Gardner, 2016). This calls for learning the language of
various cultures so as to understand the values, customs, protocols and communication
expectation of the multiple cultures. This will allow each culture to feel appreciated and
rewarded.
Therefore, people may therefore enjoy coming to work without fear, bullying,
domination, intimidation or sexual harassment hence being able to give a hundred percent of
their effort towards excellence and productivity (Kimber & Gardner, 2016). In addition, due the
to importance of workplace relationships in New Zealand, more organization may develop
policies that promote the learning of various languages as a way of assisting organization go the
extra mile of empowering employees in increasing their cooperation.

Workplace Behavior 4
References
Air New Zealand Ltd. (2019). Organizational Culture & Employee Engagement. Retrieved from
https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/sustainability-air-new-zealanders
Kimber, S., & Gardner, D. H. (2016). Relationships between workplace well-being, job demands
and resources in a sample of veterinary nurses in New Zealand. New Zealand veterinary
journal, 64(4), 224-229.
Linton, S. J., Boersma, K., Traczyk, M., Shaw, W., & Nicholas, M. (2016). Early workplace
communication and problem solving to prevent back disability: results of a randomized
controlled trial among high-risk workers and their supervisors. Journal of occupational
rehabilitation, 26(2), 150-159.
Turnbull, B. (2018). Bilingualism in New Zealand: A field of misconceptions. New Zealand
Studies in Applied Linguistics, 24(1), 70.