Status
Status refers to the position or rank in a certain category that an individual occupies. The position is characterized by its responsibilities, rights, jurisdiction, reputation and is respected and endorsed by members of society. Status separates one person from another in an organization and reveals how one's role affects his or herself. Status is important because it guides people in how to act.
Status is either given or acquired. Ascribed status is obtained on the basis of social factors such as age, gender, and race, while achieved status depends on the particular efforts of a person that result in their education, occupational, political influence, or property achievement. In an organization, status creates a hierarchy, differentiates employees, and influences how they relate and work with each other (Robbins & Judge, 2015).
Globalization and Status
Globalization has led to interaction between employees and customers from different countries with diverse cultures. The globalization has necessitated the rise of a multinational group regardless of culture. The status of administrators in the globalized organizations, whether western or eastern, greatly impacts how they connect with their workers. The worldwide ramifications that the status has for a global administrator in western and eastern societies are discussed below.
Western Culture
According to the Western culture, employees heavily rely on solid individualism because they place a high incentive on freedom and control rather than collaboration which they view as an indication of weakness. For example, the management decisions of a manager concerning employee promotions, training, and remuneration are based on the individual employee performance rather than the organization general achievement.
In addition, the Western culture lays more emphasis on uniformity. This implies that all employees are treated in the same manner despite their position in the organization. For example, an international supervisor in western countries gives more certainty to the convenience continuation of the organization alongside its presentation while upholding the principle that time wasted is never recovered. Matters on comfort, truancy, delay and inefficiency are weakened and a similar judgment or punishment is administered to both the overseer and the diverse workers.
Eastern Culture
According to the Eastern countries, their culture is based on collectivism nature whereby people are loyal to each other and are united into strong and compact groups. Employees, therefore, exchange their ideas and work together in an organization hence influencing the management. For instance, an international supervisor makes decisions pertaining training depending on the overall skills needed for the general performance of the organization. The roles and responsibilities of employees within the organization determine the design of the organization.
In Eastern culture, the idea of hierarchy exists resulting in a high power distance within an organization. Employees feel that they occupy a lower position in their workplace as compared to their leaders hence influence how the workers interrelate with their leaders. For an illustration, higher power distance influences how a global supervisor allocates wages in an organization. The supervisor ensures there is a big difference between the workers and their leaders’ salaries by allocation a higher pay according to one's position in the organization. Authority is also centralized and the international manager, therefore, ensures that decisions are made by the management and then passed to the subordinates (Robbins & Judge, 2015).
Part B: Communication Barriers
Communication barriers are hindrances that ineffectively affect the communication process resulting in communication breakdown. One notable hindrance is the language barrier. It occurs when the sender and the receiver of a message do not share a common language. However, language barrier also arises when people differ in the capability of using a particular language or if one of the communicating parties use jargons that the other party is not familiar with. For example, if a manager sends a memo written in French to his employees who only understand English, calling them for a meeting, they will not attend because the message was not understood.
Poor communication skills are another barrier that hinders communication. It results from poor delivery of a message by the sender which might occur due to difficulties in pronunciation or use of wrong grammar. It is also caused by poor listening or not paying attention by the receiver (Robbins & Judge, 2015). For example, in an organization, if a worker asks the manager a question when he/she is in an important conversation, the manager might not listen to the question and hence will end up giving no response.
Organizational barriers such as unfavourable policies, complexity in the structure, status, and lack of facilities act as barriers to effective communication. The complexity nature results from too many management levels which make communication slow as information passes from one level to another. Communication facilities are those office machines that facilitate the communication process such as telephones. Lack of these facilities prevents communication from taking place. In addition, status also hinders communication. For example, subordinates may fear their superiors hence preventing them from seeking clarification or passing messages which might be important to the top management.
Faulty assumptions prevent communication from being effective. These assumptions include assuming that effective communication is the responsibility of the sender. It makes the receiver passive which might lead to poor attention hence ineffective communication. Also assuming that the message being communicated is well understood when it is not the case distorts communication. For example, the sender might assume a message is well understood if nobody asks a question, however, it might not be the case because reasons such as fear might prevent the receiver from asking.
In a workplace, communication takes place in different forms and follows different lines. Forms of communication are verbal/oral, non-verbal, or written while the lines are vertical, horizontal or lateral. Oral communication is where messages are passed through the word of mouth. Written communication refers to the transfer of information through writing. Non-verbal communication involves passing of information through gesture and body language. The lines of communication are the direction through which communication flows. Vertical communication involves passing either from the superiors to the subordinates or vice versa. Horizontal or lateral communication takes place between people of the same rank.
If oral communication takes place in a downward direction, it means that a superior communicates to his/her subordinate by word of mouth. Downward communication takes place when giving instructions, communicating new policies, and delegating duties. For instance, a manager inviting his subordinates to the office and assigning each one the task to perform during the organization’s Annual General Meeting.
Written communication in an upward direction refers to passing of information from the subordinate to the superior through writing. Upward communication takes place when workers are submitting reports, asking for clarification, giving suggestions, feedback, and complaints (Robbins & Judge, 2015). For example, the sales manager submits a report at the end of the year to the general manager, illustrating the annual performance of the sales department.
Communication, which takes place in a non-verbal form and follows lateral direction, means that the message is passed through gestures, body movements, or facial expressions, and the communicating parties involved are of the same rank. For instance, during a meeting between heads of different departments, the production manager may give a point and all the other heads of departments nod, showing that they all agree with the production manager.
References
Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T. (2015). Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
