Communication is the key to any successful relationship and this is especially true in diverse organizations with many cultures, religions, sexes, and races. In the Fairfax Metropolitan Hospital where the primary goal is caring for the sick and injured but the secondary goal is education of doctors, it is imperative for the communication to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. The Fairfax case study mentions that accrediting agencies have mentioned the lack of diversity amongst the staff as an issue and now the Hospital is attempting to begin the rectification process with the hiring of a new Director of Nursing. However, the search committee is noting some barriers they face both inherent and proposed with a candidate, who is really the most qualified.
Communication “issues” can come in a number of flavors and because of any number of scenarios, however in this scenario they are interviewing a native Sri Lankan named Dr. Saryn Soysa for the Director of Nursing position who will also be charged with modernizing the department. Some of the potential issues they could face are: differences with enunciation and pronunciation, differences in writing styles, and differences in the core meaning of the message being sent. Dr. Soysa and her team would potentially need to ensure her writing and communication styles were not necessarily changed to match the environment but they were made universal.
Pronunciation differences are inherent when talking with any two people. People in their native tongue, dialect, speech pattern, etc., could pronounce the same word differently: for example data could be “d-at-uh or day-tuh”. Both are the correct but depending on where you are or who you are talking to, you could hear either (or “Ither”). The converse of pronunciation is
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enunciation which is a correctable because it relates to the actual pattern of speech and a