Culture is a complicated general concept with various definitions. For simplicity, cultures in general refer to a group with which people share general experiences that outline how we evaluate life. This may consist of groups born based on gender, tribe or nationality. For example, you can acquire a different culture by moving to a new region, changing your economic situation, or becoming incapacitated. When we think about culture broadly, we recognize that everyone belongs to multiple cultures at once. According to Jandt (2000), “culture is also a context. Every culture has its own worldview; his way of thinking about activity, time and human nature; one's way of perceiving oneself; and its own system of social organization”. Culture has also been defined as “that culture constitutes what constitutes our way of life, these include our shared values, knowledge, behavior and the expression of symbolism” (Dobkins, B. and Pace, R. 2003 ). Also according to a document entitled “diversity in the workplace” (Lopez-Rocha, S. 2007), “organizational management and those in management positions face differences in communication on a daily basis”. Most of this friction focuses on these different communication styles. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking such as seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world at large. However, similar words can mean different things to people of different cultures, even though they speak a similar language. When translating different languages used for communication, there is a high possibility of misinterpretations which could lead to increased confusion within an organization. Some cultures view conflict in a positive way while other people see it as something that can...... middle of paper……to assign meaning to communication symbols. Context can help recognize the extent to which the source and recipient share a similar meaning for the communicated symbols and an understanding of the culture in which the communication occurs, which is critical to the success of the communication itself. Learning about other cultures could potentially help us reflect our own image. There is an opportunity to compare our hypotheses about the best way to do things and across various approaches. Finally, meeting people from other cultures would become less lonely. Discrimination and labeling divide us from entire groups of people who could be friends and partners in working for transformation. There is hope and energy that leads us to meet the challenge of improving our communities and the world at large when we talk to different people.
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