Response to Marcelo’s response to Organization and Systems Thinking – HC2

This is a response to Marcelo’s Response to Kamal’s post on Organization and Systems Thinking:

Response to Organization and Systems Thinking from Kamal Badesha

I really appreciated Marcelo’s response to Kamal’s post in sharing his experiences in communication and recognition with his own team.  Marcelo mentioned in his post on the challenges he had with communication in Paraguay due to its culture is so important and relevant in our culture here in Canada as well.  In my experiences as an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) in Vancouver, we routinely perform inspections at various restaurants and food places.  Vancouver’s pride in its multi-ethnicity means we have many restaurant operators originated outside of Canada and allowing our citizens the opportunity to taste cuisines from all over the world.  This also means as EHOs, we often have to work with operators from different cultures.  If we are not culturally sensitive in our communications with operators, we often misunderstand each other and reach a different outcome.  For instance, when a verbal order is directed to an operator who is accustomed to the North American culture, we expect he/she to listen to our instructions and ask questions if they do not understand.  The “silence is agreement” model is often used.  However, in other cultures, silence can be interpreted differently.  In order to “save face”,  some operators would stay silent even when they are uncertain or confused by the situation.  They may not agree with the directive but continue to keep silent.  The result of this is the EHO would leave the premises thinking we an agreement was made and yet when returning later for a re-inspection, all the same issues persist because the operator did not understand what needs to be done.

In a team setting, being culturally sensitive to each other becomes even more important.  As mentioned in Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie (2014), “cultural differences [can] create walls within organizations” (pg. 151).  If we are not careful as leaders, many misunderstanding can occur which lead to ineffective teams.  Marcelo mentioned in his post about the difficulties of communications in the Paraguay culture.  I agree with Marcelo that communicating with people in different cultures can be difficult and often lead to disagreements and conflicts.  Lepsinger (2010) in Chapter 7 mentions “the outcome of an influence attempt is strongly affected by…cultural values” and suggests eleven different tactics on influencing others such as rational persuasion, appeals,  and collaboration.   Various tactics can be used to communicate effectively with others and it is up to the leader to be able to strategically decide which method are the most effective for their staff with the consideration of their cultural background.

References:

Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader : your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lepsinger  R. (2010). Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.