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Miscommunication Amongst Multicultural Workplace

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Miscommunication Amongst A Multicultural Workplace
Tara Collins
DeVry University

Miscommunication Amongst A Multicultural Workplace

In this situation an employee who seemingly has all the qualifications for the job in which she applied, was not given the position. Instead it was given to a newer employee whom had equal educational back ground, less experience but was said to be an “up and comer”. Was this a fair decision based solely on merit and professionalism? Or is there a question of cultural intolerance in which an employee was overlooked for a management position because she didn’t fit into an imaginary mold that this company has in place?
There were two candidates for the position in question. The person that got the position was an Anglo male named Alex whom has a graduate’s degree and strong employee evaluations. The other candidate that was not selected was Maria, a women of Latino ancestry. Maria also has a graduate’s degree and brings with her more experience than Alex, however her employee reviews were not as good. Also, Maria has been counseled on her tardiness and absenteeism. These are all reasons why the company states they didn’t promote Maria.
Another important fact is that none of the supervisors or people in the upper management positions are women or people of color. This is something that Maria feels responsible for her poor evaluations. In a corporation one would think that there would be more of an equal representation of diversity across all levels. There’s a description for this type of situation it’s called the Glass Ceiling Syndrome. “Terminology describing a situation where there are high numbers and perhaps overrepresentation of heavily-accented American employees in lower rungs of the organizational ladder but disproportionately low and sometimes nonexistent in the highest ranks of the organization.” (Akomolafe, 2013,

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