Please help with a response to this discussion:

compare your plans with each of theirs, and discuss how you may either implement one of their suggestions or discuss how you might convince them to implement one of yours.

My plan

Over the past few years, I have seen a major change in our organization's cultural landscape in my role as Organizational Behavioral Specialist. Our workforce is now made up of workers from a variety of linguistic, social, and ethnic backgrounds who are no longer restricted by geographic borders. Although rewarding, this change has brought opportunities and difficulties to our operations. Beyond ethnic distinctions, workplace culture includes things like communication styles, work ethics, dispute resolution techniques, hierarchical views, and even time orientation (Hofstede, 2011). If not handled well, these distinctions can either foster cooperation or cause conflict in a distributed setting.

For instance, while people from low-context cultures (like Germany or the U.S.) value explicit communication, team members from high-context cultures (like Brazil or Japan) might mostly rely on nonverbal clues and common understanding. These distinctions may lead to miscommunications and decreased productivity in the absence of cultural intelligence (CQ) (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004). Cultural misunderstandings have caused friction and delays, particularly in online meetings. Sometimes, cultural silos have developed, which has decreased cross-functional cooperation. Different cultural norms around decision-making and leadership have led to a disconnect between teams and management.

We have to Provide continual instruction in inclusive communication, active listening, and cultural sensitivity. Employees will be better equipped to handle cultural differences with compassion and understanding as a result. We will permit flexibility in communication modes, taking into account synchronous and asynchronous preferences according to time zones and cultural conventions, while preserving standardized platforms (e.g., Slack, Teams). Give managers the tools they need to effectively lead diverse teams, particularly in identifying unconscious biases and fostering fairness in the processes of decision-making and feedback. Employees from various cultural origins might be paired to promote mutual learning, improve cultural sensitivity, and strengthen relationships within the company. Establish regular avenues for employee input so they can securely voice any worries or recommendations about workplace culture.

Classmates Plan

As usual, I want to start by defining what an organizational behavior specialist is and what his focus areas are within an organization. The OB specialist is the person in charge of understanding employee behavior and improving it within the organization. By doing so, productivity, performance and company effectiveness will increase. They are able to apply sociology and psychology to problem solve and combat issues related to motivation, communication and conflict resolution (Kopp, 2024).

Over the years my organization has undergone different cultural changes that have both made a positive and somewhat negative impact within the workforce. The organization abides by their motto, "Good food. Responsibly" which guides us all to how things are must be done at every level within the organization. It is the way we all follow, commit and adhere to the organization's mission and vision (Company Culture and Engagement. (n.d.).). The development of ROI (Responsibility, Operational Excellence and Innovation) serves as a foundation for employees to achieve company goals. If they follow the above concepts, productivity, engagement, communication, and collaboration will increase. Another factor that has modeled the organization's culture is defining core values as standards for employee behavior with customers and coworkers. Lastly, per Company Culture and Engagement. (n.d.) a campaign called "Good is What we Do" is the way all company culture components come together and let others know how we contribute to making our products to ensure food safety while taking care of our employees, customers and the environment. The only negative impact I have to talk about is the recent closure of the diversity, equity and inclusion department. While there is no physical people working in the department, we still have our employee business resource groups available for our diverse workforce to participate in. While there are some changes, DEI is still part of our culture and is practiced daily.

I have to say that no matter what the cultural change that come is, leadership has taken the time to discuss with their direct reports what they mean and how we are impacted. We have quarterly meetings about this matter. Communication is done downstream and done properly. While changes are always looked at being something bad, that doesn't mean it will be. Everything happens for a reason. Got to put your positive mindset to work.