Let's Work Together
Let's Work Together
Dealing with people at work is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges a person will ever face due to the many differences in culture, gender, and personalities. The same applies to life outside work because our society is so much integrated and diversified compared to, say 50 years ago. Neighborhoods have changed and we see the obvious cultural and gender integration, such as the opposite gender taking a line of work that once used to be strictly for the other gender (e.g., a woman auto mechanic or a male nurse). Not unless someone decides to live on an island all by himself, each morning we wake up we have to face the fact that we have to deal with different types of people, whether at work or in our social lives. The deciding factor whether we can work with them harmoniously depends on our attitudes and built-in perceptions towards their culture, gender, and social background.
The first difference I have to face at work is the gender difference. I work in a healthcare organization where the female employees outnumber …show more content…
the male employees by a wide margin. Even though I personally work in the corporate office and not in a clinical facility, the difference is quite obvious just by observing the gender mix throughout different departments. Communicating with women, as the text implies, requires rapport talk (Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway, 2007). After observing some of my conversations with female co-workers, I noticed that they tend to emphasize on feelings and the importance of being "in sync", meaning they want you to feel what they're feeling and develop a sense of connection with their situation. The men, however, "treat conversations as a hierarchically ordered space in which they can demonstrate and vie for status." (Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway, 2007, p. 204). For example, men use their communication style to negotiate their status within the group and also to keep people from pushing them around. I notice this amongst my male co-worker where they use talk to preserve their independence. Conversation topics such as sports and computers are a good way for men to demonstrate their "skilz" and prowess on the subject, which sometimes lead to heated arguments.
Besides the gender difference, one other factor I have to face is the social difference between individuals.
We are all raised differently and from various eras therefore dealing with people with such differences is quite challenging. For example, there are certain people at work who are reserved and very private; on the opposite end of the spectrum there are those who are blatantly loud and obnoxious. Also, there are those that I refer to as the "middlemen" because there are days when they are detached from the world and never want to be bothered and days where it seems like they've taken multiple shots of espresso and are behaving erratically. Keeping your distance, in my observation, is the best way to avoid such conflicts with either group. This is probably a typical combination within various organizations in our society and I do belong to one but I'm not going to reveal it on this paper (I'll let you
decide).
The three strategies that Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway (2007) listed about Brenda Allen's (2003) three specific strategies that enable individuals and groups to better communicate multiple identities was very helpful in helping me further understand these differences: 1) That I become mindful and conscious about my own responses and to note my privilege. 2) That I take the initiative to create positive changes. 3) That I utilize effective communication and listening skills for bridging differences at work and in life. I personally wrote these three pointers down and posted it on my cubicle a daily reminder so I can further develop a good working relationship with the different types of people I deal with everyday. Given this, I believe everything must start within, meaning that a person needs to be aware of the differences all around him or her and to learn how to respect individuals regardless of their background. You can work in a perfect organization with just the perfect environment and perfect people, but if you do not possess the importance of the golden rule, all of this idealism won't matter. On the other hand, I guess we'd all have to learn how to respect people because who can find such organization, environment, and people?
Reference:
Eisenberg, E., Goodall Jr., H.L., Tretheway, A. (2007). Organizational Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins
Dealing with people at work is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges a person will ever face due to the many differences in culture, gender, and personalities. The same applies to life outside work because our society is so much integrated and diversified compared to, say 50 years ago. Neighborhoods have changed and we see the obvious cultural and gender integration, such as the opposite gender taking a line of work that once used to be strictly for the other gender (e.g., a woman auto mechanic or a male nurse). Not unless someone decides to live on an island all by himself, each morning we wake up we have to face the fact that we have to deal with different types of people, whether at work or in our social lives. The deciding factor whether we can work with them harmoniously depends on our attitudes and built-in perceptions towards their culture, gender, and social background.
The first difference I have to face at work is the gender difference. I work in a healthcare organization where the female employees outnumber …show more content…
the male employees by a wide margin. Even though I personally work in the corporate office and not in a clinical facility, the difference is quite obvious just by observing the gender mix throughout different departments. Communicating with women, as the text implies, requires rapport talk (Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway, 2007). After observing some of my conversations with female co-workers, I noticed that they tend to emphasize on feelings and the importance of being "in sync", meaning they want you to feel what they're feeling and develop a sense of connection with their situation. The men, however, "treat conversations as a hierarchically ordered space in which they can demonstrate and vie for status." (Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway, 2007, p. 204). For example, men use their communication style to negotiate their status within the group and also to keep people from pushing them around. I notice this amongst my male co-worker where they use talk to preserve their independence. Conversation topics such as sports and computers are a good way for men to demonstrate their "skilz" and prowess on the subject, which sometimes lead to heated arguments.
Besides the gender difference, one other factor I have to face is the social difference between individuals.
We are all raised differently and from various eras therefore dealing with people with such differences is quite challenging. For example, there are certain people at work who are reserved and very private; on the opposite end of the spectrum there are those who are blatantly loud and obnoxious. Also, there are those that I refer to as the "middlemen" because there are days when they are detached from the world and never want to be bothered and days where it seems like they've taken multiple shots of espresso and are behaving erratically. Keeping your distance, in my observation, is the best way to avoid such conflicts with either group. This is probably a typical combination within various organizations in our society and I do belong to one but I'm not going to reveal it on this paper (I'll let you
decide).
The three strategies that Eisenberg, Goodall Jr., & Tretheway (2007) listed about Brenda Allen's (2003) three specific strategies that enable individuals and groups to better communicate multiple identities was very helpful in helping me further understand these differences: 1) That I become mindful and conscious about my own responses and to note my privilege. 2) That I take the initiative to create positive changes. 3) That I utilize effective communication and listening skills for bridging differences at work and in life. I personally wrote these three pointers down and posted it on my cubicle a daily reminder so I can further develop a good working relationship with the different types of people I deal with everyday. Given this, I believe everything must start within, meaning that a person needs to be aware of the differences all around him or her and to learn how to respect individuals regardless of their background. You can work in a perfect organization with just the perfect environment and perfect people, but if you do not possess the importance of the golden rule, all of this idealism won't matter. On the other hand, I guess we'd all have to learn how to respect people because who can find such organization, environment, and people?
Reference:
Eisenberg, E., Goodall Jr., H.L., Tretheway, A. (2007). Organizational Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins