Relating Better to Others

PART 1: Stereotyping/Prejudice

Stereotypes and prejudice are part of our everyday life, particularly in the globalized and diverse society we live in today. We experience stereotypes everywhere and every day, and sometimes we even make stereotypes and prejudice a large group of people. A stereotype is a broadly held belief, thought, or view concerning a particular group of people, which in individual cases may not reflect reality, but can lead to a prejudiced reaction towards the group. Stereotyping results from the knowledge of a stereotype, which results from having negative definite features information about a group. It can also result from personal beliefs towards a particular group, which may not correspond to the stereotype (Devine, 1989).  An incidence of stereotype discussed in this paper reflects on Donald Trump’s stereotyping statements about the Muslim community during his campaigns and while in the office, calling the Muslims terrorists.

In December 2015, following a shooting in San Bernardino, California, where militants shot dead 14 people, Trump repeatedly talked about the attack during his campaign, liking the incidence to Islamic disaster, “That looks like another Islamic disaster,” Donald Trump said in one of the interviews with Mike Slater in an AM radio program. Trump’s statement reflects a stereotype labeled against Muslims. While his statement applies to specific incidents, making a blanket statement can encourage people to believe that ‘all Muslims are terrorists.’ While that is not true, it forms a belief that some non-Muslim people have. Individuals begin to categorize Muslims due to what they have heard from others in the news. A stereotype statement from any president can escalate prejudice.  For instance, around September 2015, at a campaign in New Hampshire, a man was captured in the news shouting from the audiences, “We have a problem in this country; it’s called Muslims.” “When can we get rid of them?” Trump quickly responded to the audience, saying that his government would look into the problem, suggesting that he bought into the audience’s branding of Muslims as terrorists. In March 2017, Trump issued a new travel injunction for citizens from six majority-Muslim nations, confirming his prejudice against the group.

Besides Donald Trump, the wider faction of the non-Muslim community, including some people I have interacted with, holds the belief that “all Muslims are terrorists.” However, this is untrue. It is a belief that has been passed from time to time. Stereotyping Muslims is an automatic and unintentional process, occurring despite attempts to ignore or bypass it, and is mostly based on what people have heard from society and in the news over time, forming an Islamophobia. Islamophobia has gripped Western societies over the past few decades, characterized by closed-minded prejudice and fear toward Muslims and Islam, resulting in discrimination, oppression, and marginalization of the community.

By advancing the stereotype and prejudice against the minority Muslims, Trump succeeded in promoting discrimination against the minority Muslims and even racism more subtlety. People reject obvious/overt racism and discrimination today, but prejudice is an ideal way to exert their adverse effects on the minority subtly. Threats to social identity can impact individuals’ prospects of success, particularly for disadvantaged groups (Schmader & Sedikides, 2018).

Cultural difference is one of the courses of stereotype against the Muslim community. Stereotypes form and develop since people tend to share the same cognitive limitations and prejudices or biases. People mostly confuse and attach a person’s identity to the group or culture they belong to (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Hence, explaining the heightened prejudice of Muslim people as a violent group because of a few extremist elements within the community.

More relationships between the Muslim community and non-Muslims can help curb the stereotype, allowing the Muslim people to work in the arts and media in areas such as the US and UK, where prejudice is predominant. Such interactions help in the development of healthy beliefs about the Muslim community. Healthy beliefs develop when you get to know members of other groups or communities personally, learning about them individually instead of depending on categorical information (Devine 1989). The media representation of Muslims in the US and UK are time and again simplistic, way-out, and focused mostly on violence, fueling unreasonable fears and prejudice, leading to islamophobia and sometimes bullying. Hence, giving them a chance to talk for themselves through the mass media is one way of helping to let society develop functional beliefs from which to judge whether or not all Muslims are terrorists.

A functional belief aims to the truth and accurate representation of information concerning the subject matter to inform judgment (Devine 1989). It is also important to practice self-control and time interactions when interacting with others at an induvial level. Only interact when you can exercise rationality when thinking or responding. People often retreat on automatic responses when angry or stressed (Devine 1989). Hence, only interact when sober to avoid irrational responses.

PART 2: Consulting for Sparks and Crash Computer Company #6

Problem Definition

Sparks and Crash Computer Company faces communication breakdown between the engineers and skilled assembly workers caused by cultural differences between the groups. Most of the company’s engineers are from India, while the assembly workers are predominantly Caucasians and Latinos, explaining the cultural diversity, leading to stereotypes and prejudice. The assembly workers have hard feelings towards the Indian engineers and have even refused to sit with them during lunch hours, avoiding them when not necessary. They are also short and rude with the engineers and make offensive jokes towards them. The following theories and concepts explain the breakdown in SC Company communication: independent self-construal, the interdependent construal of self, ego-focused emotions, and cross-cultural adaptation.

Theories/Concepts

Independent Self-Construal

Independent self-construal is the belief in separateness of people and striving for independence. The philosophy strives for autonomy and independence, and self-esteem can only be attained when expressing oneself and validating personal attributes (Markus & Kitayama 1991).  Independent construal of self is the major cause of stereotypes and prejudice the western assembly workers (Caucasians and Latinos) are extending towards the Indian engineers at SC Company, leading to a communication breakdown between the two groups (Markus & Kitayama 1991). Independent construal of self is a phenomenon found in western cultures, indicating a totally “self-centered” attitude where an individual’s actions and behaviors are constructed completely around their feelings and thoughts without considering other people’s feelings and thoughts (Markus & Kitayama 1991). In most Western cultures, there is the belief in integral independence, the distinctiveness of distinct persons. The overbearing belief in this culture is to be independent of others, discovering and expressing an individual’s unique attributes. Attaining the objective of cultural independence entails positioning oneself as an individual whose behavior is formed primarily about own internal repertoire of feelings, thoughts, and actions, and not of others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). That explains why the Caucasians and Latinos cannot work harmoniously, receiving instructions under the Indian engineers. It is like an insult to their independence, the desire to express oneself uniquely.

Interdependent Self-Construal

On the contrary to western culture, non-Western cultures mostly insist on the interdependent construal of self, a belief in the fundamental connectedness among people. The belief in those cultures is to maintain interdependence among people at work and in social places (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). In an independent construal environment, self-esteem is only achieved by fully expressing oneself and validating internal attributes, minus which one feels attacked in their self-esteem (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Independence construal also leads to another important concept: ego-focused emotions.

Ego-Focused Emotions

Emotions are reproduced in social situations, affecting a person’s actions towards the situation (Burkitt, 2016). Ego-focused depict a range of feelings one may experience concerning their perspective of self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The stereotype and prejudice by the western assembly workers towards the Indian engineers at SC Company are driven by ego-focused emotions, predominant in independent self and western cultures, characterized by rage, pride, and defeat. The emotions draw into one’s personality of having desires and being goal-driven as the referent. In such a scenario, individuals place themselves as the center of focus, independent of others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). They feel more attacked when the control comes from other people, explaining why the western workers at SC Company could not work well under the non-Western engineers. There is a cultural difference between the two groups, with the western culture insisting on independence or individual effort and the non-Western Indian culture embracing interdependence, creating the conflicts.

Intervention for the Problem from the Concepts/Theories

One way to address the communication breakdown at SC Company due to cultural difference that has led to stereotypes and prejudice between the two groups is to teach cross-cultural adaptation through cultural adaptability training (Sussman, 2000). Cultural adaptability training will make the two worrying groups understand that people have different approaches, styles, and attitudes based on their cultural backgrounds. Such include acknowledging the differences in working practice across the two cultures and designing work ethics and approach that make each team give their best (Sussman, 2000). Because the conflict cultures at SC Company are primarily independent (host) and interdependent cultures, it is paramount to design a work practice that allows both team and independent or individual effort where necessary, creating flexibility. The cross-cultural training should highlight how to reduce cultural barriers, avoid prejudices and stereotypes, appreciate other people’s skills and your own, improve social skills, and focus on common principles instead of differences.

There also need to teach cross-cultural communication across the teams to avoid stereotypes. It is also important to set a standard language (English) used across the organizations to avoid language barriers, making working together with a challenge. Both teams must be taught how to communicate in a multicultural team, being extra careful with their language (Gelfand, Aycan, Erez & Leung, 2017). There is always a balance between being aware of cultural variances and depending on stereotypes and prejudices to make assumptions concerning employee and colleagues’ behaviors (Shapiro & Neuberg, 2007). The workers must learn that every individual irrespective of the cultural background, is an autonomous person, so treat them in such a manner.

Possible Outcome of the Intervention

Cultural adaptability training will nurture the development of cross-cultural skills within the organization, improving communication and performance. The training will improve foreign workers’ relationships with the host culture, allowing them to adjust to Western work culture, which embraces independence over interdependence. Teaching the workforce how to communicate to each other, minding what they say to avoid stereotypes, will bring harmony, making it possible to work together.