Introduction
At present, it is very rare that we find a place that only has one type of culture or ideology, due to various factors people emigrate from their place of origin and this causes a mixture of cultures, creating multiculturalism. But it is not only that people move from one place to another that causes it, but also the reach of technology, since it is very rare that we find a place without internet access, the amount of information that we have at our fingertips. With our cell phone, we practically have access to all the information in the world just one click away.
But at the organizational level, the culture of each collaborator is of utmost importance, since they all have different customs, ways of thinking and seeing life, personality, among other things, since each head is a world and much of this has to see as mentioned above, their culture, either by religion, place of origin, among other factors.
The multiculturalism of the collaborators gives organizations an advantage over how they worked in the past, since this gives them a new panorama when it comes to giving their opinion for decision-making or simply giving suggestions for something that they want to do. in favor of the organization.
In turn, organizations must be prepared to be able to face organizations from different places, since a company that is in Mexico will not have the same culture or deduction for decision-making that is in Japan or Germany.
Now there is a new concept called "Infomulticulturalism" which in this article will be analyzed in order to better understand how different cultures in an organization affect decision-making and how it should be faced when dealing with organizations totally different from ours.
Key concepts
Infomulticulturalism is the result of different terms, therefore, each of them will be defined for a better understanding of the reader.
Information.
“It is made up of a group of data already supervised and ordered, which serve to build a message based on a certain phenomenon or entity. Information allows solving problems and making decisions, since its rational use is the basis of knowledge. " (Julián Pérez Porto, Ana Gardey, 2012)
Culture.
“It is a kind of social fabric that encompasses the different forms and expressions of a given society. Therefore, customs, practices, ways of being, rituals, types of clothing and norms of behavior are aspects included in the culture. " (Porto, 2008)
Communication.
"It is the conscious activity of exchanging information between two or more participants in order to transmit or receive meanings through a shared system of signs and semantic norms. " (Wikipedia, 2018)
"Way in which information is spread to a group of people, who have different customs, roots, cultures, tastes and characteristics." (Serrano, 2014)
Importance of communication in an organization
Communication is something that can determine the success or failure of an organization, since good communication is equivalent to having good efficiency, order and relationship, on the other side of the coin, we can find that bad communication is synonymous with inefficiency, disorder of ideas and conflicts between his collaborators.
The communication used within the organization must be clear and easy to understand for the person who will receive the message (receiver). It must arrive in a timely manner when requested and finally it has to be precise, not carry too much information that causes the important of the message to be lost.
According to CreceNegocios (2012) communication in an organization can be of two types: external communication and internal communication:
External communication
This type of communication is the one that will be directed outside the organization, that is, it is directed towards clients, the general public or any person who can express an opinion about the organization. Its purpose is to make known about the creation or availability of a product or service, that people find out what are its benefits that they will bring to having it or consuming it and the characteristics that it has, that the general public have information about what the organization is doing.
To provide this type of information, the company uses various tools which are: television, radio, newspapers, emails, use of the Internet, posters, among many more that will help bring this communication to as many people as possible.
Something widely used by organizations when it comes to external communication is "public relations", where having participation in various events, recreational activities with the community, doing social service, seeks to have a good relationship with society and in turn that the organization has a good reputation.
Internal communication
This type of communication is the one that will be carried out, as its name indicates internally in the organization, it means that it is directed to its collaborators, shareholders, general directors or anyone who works in the organization.
Its purpose is to publicize internal events, things that happen in the organization, coordinate events, motivate all employees, lead them, among other things.
In order for this communication to be successful, various tools are used which can be: murals containing the desired information, telephone calls, use of the internet, meetings, talks, events with the participation of all collaborators or only those that are intended to receive the information, among other activities.
Internal communication, as it is directed at the organization's employees, is divided into more categories than external, which CreceNegocios (2012) mentions are the following:
Formal communication
This type of communication originates from a high or determined hierarchical level and is directed to the collaborator of an immediate lower hierarchical level, of the same level or even of a higher hierarchical level, pursuing communication channels formally instituted by the organization.
Informal communication
This type of communication is the antonym of the aforementioned, since it will circulate through the organization's collaborators, but without clearly knowing where the information originated from and will not follow the channels previously established by the organization and this can reach originate "gossip”Or misunderstandings on the part of the collaborators and affect the organization.
Downward vertical communication.
This type of communication is the one that originates at a higher hierarchical level (general director, manager, area head) and is directed at an immediate lower hierarchical level (subordinate, operator, among others). We can find it as instructions, teachings, among others.
Vertical upward communication
This type of communication is the one that arises at a lower hierarchical level (subordinate, operator, among others) and is directed at a higher hierarchical level (general director, manager, area head). We can find it as suggestions, proposals for some activity, claims, among other activities.
Horizontal communication
This type of communication occurs between members of the same hierarchical level. Its main function is to be able to coordinate various activities that are the responsibility of the same hierarchical line.
Communication process
Once I have understood the types of communication that we can find within an organization, now we must know what the communication process is, and with this we can better distinguish the meaning of infomulticulturalism.
Infomulticulturalism and Communication Process
Communication process, own elaboration with information from (MAZAHUA, 2016)
Culture
According to UNESCO (2005), the word culture can be interpreted in two ways, we can find the “aesthetic” concept of culture and on the other side of the scale, there is the one coined by the “social sciences”.
Starting from the "aesthetic" context, culture is the integration of intellectual and artistic expressions of the academic or cultured environment. With another context, culture can be understood as the "set of knowledge and expressions framed by certain common characteristics and restricted to some areas of society capable of developing them (plastic arts, literature, philosophy, cinema, among others)." (UNESCO, 2005) An individual with culture is one capable of creating cultural assets and who possesses great knowledge in a particular area, its opposite would be an individual who is totally unaware, so it would be someone uneducated.
When it comes to aesthetics, it has given it the meaning that human knowledge is in constant motion and evolving towards continuous improvement, where civilized practices stand out from those that are not.
Individuals who have a well-developed culture can create some kind of technical and scientific knowledge, among others, in order to meet the needs that these areas require.
Already in the social context, the term culture has more ramifications of interpretations. This context refers to culture as an agglomeration of particular features such as mental, intellectual, material and emotional that represent a particular society, it also refers to the creative expressions that the aesthetics of said culture outlines.
Why is culture important?
It could be said that culture is the "glasses" through which we can see everything that surrounds us, our environment and what gives meaning to life in society, in turn, guides the organization of relationships and to the understanding between the rest of the societies.
Culture possesses a fraction of a material organization of social life in the same way that it summarizes the values that each member of the group has.
Likewise, culture is an indicator of identification, in other words, it is a symbol of belonging, since it is a channel for socialization, teaching and alignment of the composite part of the identity of each of the individuals.
Seen with this aspect, it represents tradition and transmission, where transmission establishes a historical frame of reference and transmission is to maintain the nexus that relates the generations and to pose to each individual the limitations of their entry into the group to which they belong.
Finally, culture is what unites and brings together human beings in a common way, in other words, culture is a way in which we can see others, to put ourselves "in their shoes" and have that sense of permanence to a group, which makes us have to follow certain rules of relationship with others.
Culture, over the years, gives rise to the creation of new civilizations, for the cause that the individuals who remain in the different groups have the same interests and opinions, also so that we can communicate with other cultures is extremely important to translate with each other.
Decision-making process in an organization
We can represent the organization as a decision-making system, where employees act with a “cool head”, studying between different types of choices.
In our daily life we all have to make different kinds of decisions, from the moment we wake up, carry out our activities and go back to sleep, in the case of organizations, we describe those decisions that are important for the operation of the company.
The path of decision-making in an organization begins, from when a situation surrounding the problem is encountered. Then a study and definition of the problem will come.
To face this, a reliable, pertinent and renewed information method is required, which gives us the opportunity to clearly understand what type of problem we are going to face and how we can solve it effectively.
We have to know what are the internal factors that the company has, both formal and informal of the companies, in the formal part are the culture, organizations, procedures, rules, organization chart, resources, among others and on the side of the informal ones, such as the implicit rules, routines, experience, among others. To this is added the external factors that accompany the organization such as: buyers, suppliers, the economy, competitors, among others.
It is important to choose which methodologies and instruments are going to be used. In each specific problem there corresponds a composition of processes to start it, understand it and carry it out.
We have to be very clear about the prohibitions and conditions. To solve a difficulty, we draw categorical parameters as a company, and the environment itself imputes some difficulties to us. By knowing these faces well we can determine which path is the best.
An important key is the proof that will be made of the cost-benefit that the organization will receive when making the decision. It must be stipulated what will be the earnings that they will receive for said decision. But not everything is the profit, the consequences must also be seen, even if they are negative.
Every decision made in the organization must have a why, an end for which it was made, since it is not only "why if" this would not be appropriate and a big mistake would be made.
Then comes the investigation of the most appropriate ways to achieve what is planned to be achieved. These paths must be confronted, in order to be able to conclude which is the best for the company, adjusting to what it needs.
Finally, it must be carried out which was the path that the organization took for its decision making, likewise a self-evaluation must be carried out, to see if it was the appropriate option and in which it could be improved.
Factors to take into account in the process.
There are various factors that intervene in an organization when making a decision, according to Conexionesan (2016) they are the following:
- The collaborators who are in charge of making the decisions, must have enough information, to be able to determine which will be the best way forward. The judgment that guides the final decree is effectiveness, which is achieved by maximizing results with the least amount of resources possible.
- Choosing a path that has already been studied previously indicates that we have already renounced the rest and with this the realization of new circumstances in time. That is why it is of the utmost importance that the consequences of choosing that path be studied.
- He mentions the use of methodologies that make the application of organized work easier. It is preferable to choose and use the most convenient courses of action for communication between collaborators.
- Decisions are chosen from the perspective of the interests of the organization and its internal rules. "In this sense, there is a culture, a division of tasks, a hierarchy of decision-making, performance standards, authority systems, communication channels, training and indoctrination, among others." (Conexionesan, 2016) The antonym to the above would be to make that decision only by the will of a collaborator.
Infomulticulturalism
Today, in organizations, as well as in our places of origin, we have been able to realize the substantial increase in different cultures, ways of living, thinking, interacting, and acting in certain cases, among others. In organizations, the aforementioned points have also been incorporated little by little, and as a consequence the work environment and organizational culture are altered.
Each colleague has a different way of solving something, or has a different thinking from us, this in the organization can be used as a source of analysis, which will give us first-hand information on how that collaborator interacts in the professional environment.
Something that has helped make all this possible is that freedom of expression is now taken as normal and necessary in any society (not only in a company), agrees that each collaborator of their point of view on something, if he considers that it is well or not, this without hurting or affecting his colleagues. As each head is a world, we may find that we all have different tastes, abilities, or simply different ways of looking at life.
“One of the main objectives of infomulticulturalism is to analyze, structure and decide how the information is going to be distributed to the people who receive it, the influence and importance that they give it in decision-making and finally the way in which it is share in the environment. " (Arias, 2012)
Thesis proposal.
Implementation of workshops so that SMEs can understand what infomulticulturalism is and how to use it.
Objective.
Facilitate decision-making by SMEs, by knowing how infomulticulturalism works.
Thanks.
I thank my family, for giving me all the support and encouragement to continue day by day, the Technological Institute of Orizaba for opening its doors to me and allowing me to continue my studies with the Master's Degree in Administrative Engineering and Dr. Fernando Aguirre and
Hernández for motivating me with his knowledge in the Fundamentals of Administrative Engineering seminar to carry out each of the assigned articles.
conclusion
Infomulticulturalism is a recently created topic, but the function it has within an organization or for a society is very interesting, it is the way in which we can transmit knowledge to individuals from different cultures.
Focusing a little more on an organization, infomulticulturalism will be of great help in decision-making, since it will help us understand how different collaborators think, since being from different places, each one has a different point of view to be able to Solving something, all this if managed properly will be of great benefit to the organization, but you have to be careful that having different points of view can lead to misunderstandings and generate a bad organizational climate.
References.
Arias, CI (March 3, 2012). Gestiopolis. Obtained from
Connectionesan. (November 3, 2016). esan.edu. Obtained from
Grow Business. (May 21, 2012). Grow Business. Obtained from https://www.crecenegocios.com/la-comunicacion-en-una-empresa/ Julián Pérez Porto, Ana Gardey. (2012). Definition of.
MAZAHUA, NR (May 31, 2016). Kaizen Institute. Retrieved from
Porto, JP (2008). Definition of. Retrieved from
Serrano, EM (November 25, 2014). Gestiopolis. Obtained from https://www.gestiopolis.com/infomulticulturalidad/ UNESCO. (2005). Cultural diversity. UNESCO, 15-20.
Wikipedia. (2018). Wikipedia. Obtained from
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It refers to aspects of the meaning, sense, or interpretation of linguistic signs as symbols, words, expressions, or formal representations. (Wikipedia, 2018)
Comment or unverified news that circulates among people, generally of a negative nature (Google, 2018).
