About 'solomon accounting system'|...as of the individual. Sioux Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance movement was a religious belief system with Cargo Cult elements that combined Christian dogma with traditional...
The ability to communicate and effectively resolve conflict among various ethnic employees within an organization is a reality that management faces today. It is crucial for managers to learn how to address concerns voiced by individuals of a different background. This ensures that the organization will run smoothly and the employees' will be satisfied and confident that they are valued by the company. However, it is important that management receives the proper training and experience in order to learn how to solve conflict related to these particular incidents. This training and experience extends to managing workplace conflict overseas in areas such as Asia and Mexico. As the workplace expands to represent a wide range of ethnically diverse individuals, organizational leaders must learn to effectively resolve conflict related to specific cultural differences. With the globalization of the labor force, businesses are working with more culturally diverse employees and co-workers than ever before, which is a great experience and at the same time a challenge. (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223; Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 383). Teams that are ethnically diverse have advantages over demographic homogeneous teams by adding new perspectives and inputs. This diversity can also cause conflict within the team; however this is not a problem as long as it is constructively handled (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223). If the problems are not constructively handled then economic and employee dissatisfaction can arise, two of the main reasons why management must learn to gain conflict resolution skills. If the employee dissatisfaction is constructively handled, then the economic costs will also be addressed, by more satisfied production from the employee. Employees experiencing frustration from being misunderstood or feeling unappreciated for their skills cost the company a lot in idle time. "If every employee wastes just 30 minutes each day in conflict with co-workers owing to problems related to cultural differences, there would definitely be adverse economic impacts" (Demers, 2002: 28). In the past white males dominated the workforce, with 48.9% of white males making up the labor force in 1976 (Jolie, 1990: B1). Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Labor verifies that 64% of the entire work force in 1980 consisted of white individuals (Labor Force Demographics, 2010). With cultural differences on the rise, Solomon Jolie wrote an article (in 1990) estimating that the number of white males making up the work force in 2000 would be 39.4%. Jolie was correct in his estimation that the largely white workforce would diminish, now Hispanics have surpassed whites, making up 68.5% of the work force in 2008, while whites made up 66.3% of the workforce (Labor Force Demographics, 2010). The new workforce consists of women and minorities, including African, Asian, Hispanic and Native American origin, stated Jolie, as he explained that employees of different ethnicities are able to ask more from their employers than ever before. However, some experts say that employees with foreign backgrounds may be cause for too much conflict in the workplace. Jolie continued saying that "small disagreements have escalated into 'real conflict, where someone was going to get fired.' A major reason, he says, is cultural differences. When a manager from the dominant U.S. culture saw two Arab-American employees arguing, he figured he had better stay out of it. But the employees expected a third party intermediary, or "wasta" in Arabic, and without one the incident blew up" (Jolie, 1990: B1). As this episode indicates, the unfamiliar cultural differences caused uncertainty in how the manager chose to react in the situation. Nevertheless, in many counties cultural differences are accepted and supported. In China, diversity is widely encouraged, especially recruitment from other countries. The Chinese government believes that the cross cultural engagement will promote innovation. The "Thousand People Plan" was created to instigate and support the significance of a cross cultural work force (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223). It is important for management today to recognize that differences among employees are something to be valued instead of negatively looked upon. The diverse type of skills required from businesses, indicates the need to hire a work force that provides the same amount of diversity among its employees. Depending on the employee and their skill set, the form of work will vary depending on the department involved, and each sector has a different set of goals and variations in structure and management; while also always having the potential for disagreements among employees. "This differentiation among individuals, departments and other operating units in the organization increases the potential for conflict. When we add to this scenario the fact that international business today involves various cultural norms and expectations, it becomes clear that causes of conflict cannot be eliminated" (Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 383). Darling and Fogliasso also determine that a conflict management structure is imperative to the workplace. It is also essential to recognize that managers have different socialization norms and skills depending on their national cultures. If the socialization norms are not recognized, it can cause individuals to "interpret and respond to...behavior in conflicting ways. Differences in culture (national or corporate) are likely to be reflected in [their behavior]" (Das and Kumar, 2010: 17). Preferred styles of conflict vary depending on what culture an employee was raised in. The American culture is one of independence, an "individualistic, win-lose approach and [a culture which has a great] emphasis [on] privacy, [whereas] Arab-Americans tend to value a win-win result that preserves group harmony but often requires mediation" (Jolie, 1990: B1). Americans may have a hard time cooperating with other countries because they pride themselves on individualism and personal success. "The U.S. sense of individualism is based upon three basic premises: 1) all people are basically the same; 2) people should be judged upon the merits of their work; and, 3) these merits, which manifest one's inherent worth, are demonstrated through performance" (Erlich, 1993: 16). However other countries hold different beliefs on handling conflict. For example, in Hong Kong, "Chinese norms of concern for collective interests and concern for authority appeared more strongly among Hong Kong Chinese managers than among their American counterparts" (Tinsley and Brett, 2001: 360; Dong and Liu, 2010: 234). The Chinese demonstrated actions similar to that of a mechanical society rather than an organic society like the United States. "Culture had a significant effect on whether parties selected an integrative outcome rather than an outcome that involved distribution, compromise, higher management, or no resolution at all" (Tinsley and Brett, 2001: 360). "The hope in cross-cultural communication is not to decide "who's rational and who's irrational" but to understand both perspectives and become comfortable with them" (Jolie, 1990: B1). Many times, individuals from cross cultural backgrounds misunderstand one another which may lead to conflict. For example, Americans are always looking for their next great achievement. Other counties that don't demonstrate this same value, such as Mexicans, are than perceived as lazy or inefficient from an American point of view. American managers put work ahead of personal needs, which is opposite of the Mexican work style. When confrontation arises, Americans are quick to stand their ground, spouting unemotional, straight forward facts, which can be very disrespectful to an employee from another culture. A Mexican employee's inclination includes avoiding confrontation in order to save face. "Rules, policies and procedures are sometimes overlooked by the Mexican worker in favor of adhering to the wishes of the person in charge or satisfying a coworker's personal needs. Given the belief in the uniqueness of each individual, it stands to reason that people, rather than abstract principles or concepts, should be respected" (Erlich, 1993: 16). Management must learn how to teach employee's to respect one another and prevent disruption in the work place, related to cultural differences. When the conflict is related to a social identity characteristic which is non-fluid, such as ethnicity, nationality or gender, it is important for the manager to know how to determine what course of action is appropriate. There are several influences to consider before making a decision. The first is whether the manager and the employees involved in the conflict are of the same social identity groups. The second aspect is whether the employees represent the minority or dominant group of the workplace. Lastly, the manager needs to recognize "the shared influence of the embedded-autonomous cultural dimensions and the hierarchical-egalitarian cultural dimensions" (Dalton and Chrobot-Mason, 2008: 343). Employees enter the workplace with their demographics having the most affect on their identity. "The salience of this identity is maintained by contentious historical and contemporary relationships between groups in society at large. It is the responsibility of those who hold managerial roles in organizations to keep this conflict from erupting in the workplace" (Dalton and Chrobot-Mason, 2008: 352). However, if there is a difference on salient aspects of social identity, management may find it more complicated to resolve the conflict. It is argued that cultural values must be taken into context when determining the influence of the differences between the manager and employee. Cultures which demonstrate an importance on individual instead of collective achievement will rely on 'sense making of chaos' as the interpretive scheme, meaning that a threat to personal goal attainment will cause disruption. On the other hand, cultures who exhibit strong collectiveness over individuality rely on 'sense making in chaos' as the dominant interpretive scheme, meaning these groups will rely on maintaining alignment between individuals and the group. Balancing the two in a congruent manner is crucial (Das and Kumar, 2010: 23). "The permeability of group boundaries, the strength of group attachment, and the perceived legitimacy of role relationships between dominant and non-dominant group members will all contribute to the choices available to a manager and the probability of his or her success in reducing social group conflict in the workplace" (Dalton and Chrobot-Mason, 2008: 352). The individualistic vs. collective society exhibits a great deal of social differences among employees. As Americans separate themselves with silence and increased personal space (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223), collectivist counties such as China and Nigeria emphasize a concern for the relationships. For instance "Canadians (an individualistic culture) preferred harmony-enhancing styles of resolving conflict, although Nigerians (a collectivistic culture) had an equal preference for both harmony-enhancing and competitive styles...[and] it is widely accepted that Asian forms of collectivism place pressure on individuals to avoid disagreements of any kind" (Gabrielidis, Stephan, Ybarra, Dos Santos, and Villareal, 1997: 661). "The Japanese represent a great example of Asian collective culture by managing conflict through avoidance or accommodation; they use collaboration infrequently because collaboration often requires the expression of different views" (Gabrielidis, et.al, 1997: 661). In order to be effective in a cross cultural work team, the key is to pay attention to context and stay subjective (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223). These two details are important in preventing conflict among cross cultural differences. However, conflict is not completely preventable, it will always be a part of life, and an important issue to address is management training in cross cultural conflict, in order to successfully address these differences. Competency in cross cultural management is a skill that companies are beginning to recognize. Lucie Houde, development manager at Archetypes-Inter. "is a firm that specializes in cross-cultural lectures, training and communications services for companies and organizations that manage people or a clientele from a variety of cultural groups. 'Managers are not necessarily cognizant of the importance of this phenomenon and the repercussions it may have within companies,' maintains Houde, stressing that it is important to take this issue into consideration" (Demers, 2002: 28). Personnel who are competent in cross-cultural management have recently received a lot of attention by the Chinese government and are listed among the most important skill areas in the next ten years. China's central government has decided to provide more support to the enterprises needed to obtain certain talents and, therefore, many public policies have been set regarding discovering, motivating and developing skills in the area of cross-cultural management" (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223). Appreciating instead of rejecting cultural differences within the workplace will bring success and employee satisfaction. While benefits will result as a firm increases the diversity of its workforce, quite possibly misunderstandings may also develop as a result of different cultural norms as more cultures are represented within the workforce. Therefore it is imperative that a manager respect the right of employees to have different points of view and to exhibit this respect" (Darling and Foglassio, 1999: 383). It is also significant for management to feel comfortable dealing with cultural differences as well. Individuals exhibit fear of the unknown, so an employee of an unfamiliar background may cause apprehension in the manager to effectively deal with the conflict. Companies should attempt to select managers with strong emotional intellect and provide cultural training "that consists not only of cultural facts but also interpersonal skills such as active listening, conflict management, and ethical reasoning, [and] utilizing sensitivity training techniques to better prepare managers for new situations" (Jassawalla, Truglia, and Garvey, 2004: 837). Individuals exhibit different types of conflict resolution styles; these include avoidance, compromise, accommodation, competition and collaboration. Managers should learn which style is most natural to them and then study the strengths and weaknesses of that style. Aside from the style of conflict resolution a manager possesses, there are three methods of conflict resolutions, lose-lose, win-lose, or win-win(Covey, 1989: 209; Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 385). When examining the methods of conflict, management should emphasize the mutual instead of personal point of view, which will result in a win-win resolution. "In these methods the emphasis is on attaining a solution, rather than on defining the goals, values or motives. This results in conflicts that are personalized rather than depersonalized. A depersonalized conflict results in an objective focus and on facts and issues" (Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 385). Win-win solutions are always the preferred choice of handling conflict, while win-lose and lose-lose are second choices. Lose-lose techniques will end up leaving both individuals disappointed and frustrated. Compromising is sometimes considering a lose-lose method because both individuals end up losing part of what they were fighting for. A win-lose solution only satisfies one individual, usually the manager and leaves the employee feeling shorted. An example of a win-lose "situation would be management's failure to follow staff's suggestions for change" (Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 385). In this case it may be an employee from a different ethnicity requesting a change related to his beliefs or culture and the manager ignores the request. However, because we are focusing on conflict resolution, we will concentrate on win-win techniques. A win-win method will focus on issues and situations which are especially significant when dealing with the delicacy of an individual of a different background. In order to practice the win-win method, one must focus on problem solving and common goals instead of the employee's differences. The manager must first identify the conflict, find the common goal, "greater than the individual goals of the conflicting entities" (Nelson and Quick, 1994: 406), and then identify a superordinate goal to overcome the problem and ultimately unify the two individuals (Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 385). Unifying different ethnic individuals in an organization can help produce better conflict resolution in the future. Showing management and employees how to react to cross cultural conflict can be achieved in two ways, productively or destructively. When members of an organization "react to conflict productively (i.e. learn from conflict and settle it quickly) [they] will most likely achieve high levels of outcomes. On the contrary, [organizations] where members react to conflict destructively (i.e. not learning from conflict and allowing conflict experiences to linger negatively) will have poor levels of outcomes" (Ayoko, 2007: 105). Aside from productive and destructive styles of conflict, management can influence conflict through physical and social settings. "For instance, the outcome of a particular meeting will be affected by such things as the neutrality of the meeting place, its formality or informality, time devoted to the discussion, and composition of the meeting. The situational context can affect the balance of power" (Darling and Fogliasso, 1999: 385). The neutrality of the setting will help communication through cross cultural employees. "Demographic diversity is linked with increased difficulties in communication, co-ordination, conflict and poor group consequences" (Ayoko, 2007: 105). Ayoko proposes that communication openness will have an impact on the "types and course of conflict and reactions to conflict such that communication openness will be associated with fewer conflict events and communication openness will be associated with productive reactions to conflict" (105). Another way for management to deal with cross cultural conflict is to effectively interpose oneself into the conflict. In doing so the manager can meet with each employee privately to better understand and address particular points of view. This may be more difficult than it sounds for some managers. Individual differences must be addressed among managers in order to build an effective training system and "careful training needs analysis should be done to ensure clear objective and content of training" (Dong and Liu, 2010: 223). Das and Kumar suggest that cross-cultural training programs which produce an appreciation for other cultures are useful in unifying the workplace. Organizations should also utilize "sensitivity training techniques to better prepare managers for new situations [pertaining to cross cultural differences]" (Jasawalla et al., 2004: 837). Continuous training for management solidifies understanding of cross cultural conflict resolution. "Role-plays, simulations, case studies, and small group discussions are often key components of [cross-cultural] workshops, and these can go some distance in sensitizing [management] to the interpretations of [various ethnic employees]...[managers] must become skillful in the management of conflicts as and when they occur. Conflicts are bound to arise many a time...but effective management of conflict implies that conflicts are prevented from escalating needlessly" (Das and Kumar, 2010: 23). Cross cultural conflict resolution skills among management is a crucial aspect in today's workplace. Several main points are concluded in this research along with recommendations of further research and skill building among management. The workplace has evolved into a multi-cultural setting, full of different ethnicities, nationalities and cultures. Many countries are now recognizing the potential of a culturally diverse workforce. In order to be effective, management must become familiar with different norms and guidelines of cultures in order to effectively handle conflict. Individualistic or collectivist societal backgrounds play a big part in evaluating how other ethnic individuals react to or deal with conflict. As it was shown, the employee's cultural background should be taken into account and sensitively handled when resolving an issue. There should be an emphasis on a win-win resolution rather than lose-lose or win-lose decisions. It is also important for management to respect other's beliefs and realize the bigger goal rather than individual goals. A recommendation I would make is to include many hands-on experiences for managers. This may include visiting another country to become familiar with their culture and how they handle conflict. For example, if the organization has a large Hispanic workforce, it may be useful to send management on a trip to Central America to visit some companies there and learn tips in their conflict resolution styles. Because workplace diversity is expanding, management must be proactive in utilizing cross-cultural workshops and training programs. I would definitely recommend ongoing workshops, at least once every three months in order to keep management on top of all current and potential problems with cross cultural differences. For example, I would rotate different speakers and topics every three months, focusing on Arab culture one month and African American culture the next time. There is still a lot to learn about the emerging multi-cultural workforce, as it is still developing. Some interesting points to cover in future research would include looking at the dominant race of management and how this may have an effect on the minority race subordinate employees or vice-versa. Or is there better conflict resolution among a minority manager and a minority employee vs. a dominant manager and a minority employee. Another research point would be the differences in the types of organizations featuring the most workforce diversity and what these organizations produce, i.e. manufacturing jobs feature more cultural diversity than an accounting organization. Overall, organizations are realizing the importance of management that can handle conflict resolution among cross-cultural differences. References "Labor Force Demographics." 2010. The Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1 Jan. 2010. 11 Nov. 2010. . Ayoko, Oluremi B. 2007. "Communication openness, conflict events and reactions to conflict in culturally diverse workgroups." Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal 14: 105-124. Covey, Stephen. 1989. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Glencoe: Free Press. Dalton, Maxine, and Donna Chrobot-Mason. 2008. "A theoretical exploration of manager and employee social identity, culutral values and identity conflict management." Journalof Cross Cultural Management 8: 343-361. Darling, John R, and Christine Fogliasso. 1999. "Effective conflict management: use of the behavioral style model." European Business Review 99: 383-385. Das, T.K., and Rajesh Kumar. 2010. "Interpartner sensemaking in strategic alliances: Managing cultural differences and internal tensions." Management Decision 48: 17-36. Demers, Julie. 2002. "Crossing the cultural divides." CMA Management 76: 28. Dong, Kevong, and Ying Liu. 2010. "Cross-cultural management in china." Cross Cultural Management 17: 223. Erlich, Marc I. 1993. "Making sense of the bicultural workplace." Business Mexico 3: 16-17. Gabrielidis, Cristina, and Walter Stephan, and Oscar Ybarra, and Virginia Dos Santos, and Lucila Villareal. 1997. "Preferred styles of conflict resolution: Mexico and the United States." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 28: 661-665. Jassawalla, Avan, and Ciara Truglia, and Jennifer Garvey. 2004. "Cross-cultural conflict and expatriate manager adjustment: An exploratory study." Management Decision 42: 837-841. Jolie, Solomon. 1990. "As cultural diversity of workers grows, experts urge appreciation of differences." Wall Street Journal: B1. Nelson, Debra L, and James Campbell Quick. 1994. Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Realities, and Challenges. South-Western College Pub. Tinsley, Catherine H, and Jeanne Brett. 2001. "Managing workplace conflict in the United States and Hong Kong." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 85: 360-368. |
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