Communication Theory
Amanda Gant
HCS/320
April 11, 2012
Marsha Ferrer

Communication Theory

During the 50’s large U.S. organizations usually operated as Monolithic Organizations. This organization is dominated by white male majorities, with few women and minority men in the management jobs. Women, minority men and foreign nationals had to adapt to the organizations norms in order for them to survive. In the 60’s and 70’s these organizations transitioned away from these norms because of the civil-rights and feminists movements (Cox, 1991). In today’s society many of these organizations are becoming Multicultural rather than Monolithic. The characteristics that set multicultural organizations apart are; an absence of discrimination, low levels of intergroup conflict, and full structural integration with full integration of informal networks. The Multicultural organization is an ideal organization for the present and the future.
The organization that I belonged to was that of the Multicultural aspect. Women were managers, and held the sought out highest positions in the organization. The minority men also held the positions that were considered the most financially stable. Of course there are always gender and cultural differences in every organization. It is evident that people who are similar are likely to understand each other better. We had high status caregivers giving care to poor illiterate patients. These patients status was called Socioeconomic Status (SES). The factors that classified someone to be this group are income, education, and employment levels. These patients asked fewer questions than others, and revealed less about their conditions. They also became more fearful about their health, and are less able to judge the severity of their illness. Some of the caregivers in my organization used the biomedical model with these poor, minority patients, and involved them less in the decision making.
Gender differences also posed some problems in the multicultural organization that I once was a team member of. The females that I worked with were more nonverbally expressive in health care situations, and talked more than men. They also engaged in more partnership-building behaviors. It was suggested that females are more knowledgeable then males about certain health issues. Our female patients also favored female caregivers, while the men had no strong preference when it came to the sex of their caregivers. Our health care professionals also shared more information with the female’s patients than with the males.
When you have cultural differences in an organization, it usually brings the problem of language barriers as well. With this wide range of diversity it can cause miscommunication and misunderstandings. This can occur amongst fellow co-workers, and with caregivers treating patients. Usually people who do not speak English are less satisfied with medical care than Caucasians (Du Pre, 2004). Within the organization that I was part of the families of these patients felt that with the caregivers not speaking their own language, it led to misdiagnoses. Another way the medical care within my organization was challenging is with poor communication across racial lines. The patients and a few of our caregivers were equally uncomfortable with people of other races, and they often times misinterpreted communication cues. These caregivers and patients would also allow stereotypes to interfere with their judgment. Some of the families of our African American patients felt our caregivers were more reluctant to inform and treat them with costly procedures that were used for other patients. These African American patients and their families were not as involved in decision making as our white patients were. I felt that our organization was a multicultural organization that was striving to be fair to all, but every organization is not totally perfect, and they all have their downfalls.
Improvements that could have been made within my organization for language barriers are the hiring of bi-lingual caregivers. There were very few when I was there, and I feel when they do this it will relieve some of the confusion, and miscommunication amongst caregivers and patients.
When you have diversity in an organization, there are many benefits that go with it. It brings about better decision making, creativity, and a successful marketing of different types of customers. Often time’s individuals fear people who are different, and bring change in the usual norms of society. If our world was intended to only include the white male as the leader of every organization, why did God make a world with so many colors of people. God loves all his children and that includes; red, yellow, black and white. God’s plan is to let every man live equally with one another, and to help their fellow man. The mission of every organization should be to love and treat people like Jesus would. God does not measure a man by his skin color, but by his soul and heart. Slowly but surely we are getting closer to what God intended for his diverse nation

References

Cox, T. (1991). The Multicultural Organization. Journal of different organization types, 5(2), 34-47.

Du Pre, A. (2004). Diversity Among patients (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: The McGraw Hill Companies.