Business Communication 8th Edition by Amy Newman,Scot Ober

Exercise 16

Respond to domestic intercultural issues.
As a manager, how would you respond to each of the following situations? What kind of helpful advice can you give to each party?
a. Alton gets angry when several of the people he works with talk among themselves in their native language. He suspects they are talking and laughing about him. As a result, he tends to avoid them and to complain about them to others.
b. Jason, a slightly built office worker, feels intimidated when talking to his supervisor, a much larger man who is of a different racial background. As a result, he often is unable to negotiate effectively.
c. Raisa is embarrassed when she must talk to Roger, a subordinate who has a major facial disfigurement. She doesn't know how to look at him. As a result, she tends to avoid meeting with him face to face.
d. Sheila, the only female manager on staff, gets incensed whenever her colleague Alex apologizes to her after using profanity during a meeting.
e. When Jim arrived as the only male real estate agent in a small office, it was made clear to him that he would have to get his own coffee and clean up after himself-just like everyone else. Yet whenever the FedEx truck delivers a heavy carton, the women always ask him to lift the package.