COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS

Communication in Business

Briefing Paper

Executive summaryWho: Your name

Whom: Client's name

Why: Stereotyping and prejudice in the workplace, its implication and its prevention

Introduction

In the contemporary world of business enterprises, immense connectivity at all levels have developed with the passage of time. People have to engage with their customers, colleagues or stakeholders who come from varying cultures. This interaction has created a global marketplace, where everyone gets to interact with people coming from every nook and corner of the world (Lorenzen 1968, 3-29).

This interaction enables people to understand how people from other cultures perceive things in their own cultural context and how do they respond to different situations accordingly. Comprehending the way people from other cultures think is essential for all successful business activities. This is how one can communicate and negotiate effectively; otherwise cultural constraints pose a great threat to the triumph of a business. It is in fact impossible to achieve success in a business without a thorough understanding of cultural diversities. However, a practice which is rampant in all parts of the world is to subject people from other cultures to stereotyping and prejudice because of their cultural identities (Lorenzen 1968, 3-29).

My previous education background are as follows

First Class (75%) in MCA (Master of Computer Application from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) India. (Aug 2007- July 2010)

First class (60%) in BSc Computer Science from Acharaya Nagarjuna University. Vijayawada. India. ( April 2003- April 2006)

In the context of cultural theories, discrimination of all sorts must be dealt with and cross cultural communication must be carried out for the success of the business. To deal with such situations whereby someone is subjected to stereotyping and unfair and prejudiced treatment, there are certain things which have to be understood when someone has to interact with people of different cultures in workplace (Kurtines & Pollard 1989, 26-52).

Situation Overview

Abdul is a British born employee working for an international organization. He is often called names like 'Osama', 'fundamentalist', 'extremist', 'uncivilized' and 'terrorist' on the basis of his Arab cultural roots and affiliation with Islam. This often creates problems for Abdul to concentrate on his work and feels like quitting the organization from time to time. People often express discriminate Abdul from the rest of the employees for his cultural values and many people despise him (Kurtines & Pollard 1989, 26-52). This attitude was not adopted toward Abdul prior to the tragic incident of 9/11. But the post 9/11 era turned out to be stressful and difficult for many people like Abdul. This way of generalizing the entire cultural groups based on past experiences becomes deeply rooted in the psyche of the people, even if the experience if not directly related to the person in question. In an international organization, people from varying cultures mingle up to do business. Culture reflects varying aspects of a person's personality and their way of perceiving things. The basic factors which a culture reflects are geographical location, historical background of the said culture and the religious background of ...