Engleberg And Wynn: The Culturally Diverse Nature Of Societies

Cultural diversity is a vital issue which cannot be undermined in present day society, this is due to the fact that the world is regarded as a global village and people from different cultural backgrounds and societies live in places which do not reflect their original cultural background. The culturally diverse nature of societies has made it possible for people from different cultural backgrounds to interact, work and communicate with each other. Neuliep notes that, people from the particular culture are regarded as a unique team because they share similar values, beliefs and behavior (Neuliep J. W., 2000, p. 16). Values and beliefs of one culture can be regarded as incorrect by another culture, and when cultures with contrasting values

Engleberg and Wynn argues that for people to fully interact they must communicate, generate meanings and establish a good relationship within a teams (Engleberg & Wynn, 1997, p. 6). Every team has a goal and in order to achieve that goal the members of the team must interact with each other, but teams which are composed of members from different cultures will have contrasting issues during their interaction process because they do not share same values and beliefs. Neuliep notes that “Culture has a direct influence on the physical, relational and perceptual environment” (Neuliep J. W., 2000, p. 14). The attitude of people is influenced by their culture when relating to their team members. It is essential for team members to understand the contrasting beliefs and values of their partners from different cultures, because uplifting obstacles which arise in teams will enable the smooth functioning of the

Neuliep argues that multicultural team members process information which is greatly influenced by their cultural context and this influences their interaction and interpretation of their fellow team members (Neuliep J. W., 2000, p. 134). A wrong perception about another team member can interrupt good working conditions, and this can lead to interruption of achievement of goals in a team. Communication is inevitable in the existence of people and when they are deprived from communication it can be regarded as punishment (Neuliep J. W., 2000, p. 6). In multicultural teams members have different mother languages, but communicate in another language with other members. The language used in communication might not be well mastered by other nationals, and a bad language will create an obstacle to effective communication, and this will in turn reduce work performance and productivity towards attaining the team`s goal. Moreover the fact that values of one culture outline guidelines on how people should behave in that culture may not be correct in another culture (Neuliep J. W., 2000, p. 16). This will pose a great challenge in the smooth functioning of multicultural teams, because of the contrasting values of