Your company has just hired your foreign friend to work in a middle-management position. Since you have lived in the United States for many years, your friend believes that you understand job coaching for a traditional American company. She wants to work with you and has many questions—some of which concern the manner in which cultural nuances related to religious customs, verbal and nonverbal communication, etc. may affect leadership roles.
1. Recommend whether or not your friend should insert herself as a coach from the beginning. Provide a rationale for your response.
2. Determine two (2) conflicts that could possibly arise as a result of asking people to work on days of religious significance. Propose concrete solutions for these two (2) possible conflicts.
3. Determine whether or not cultural quirks could restrain the foreign manager from expressing his or her ideas readily. Provide a rationale for your response.
4. Determine two (2) actions that you can take in order to prepare yourself and your friend to become multicultural leaders. Provide two (2) examples to support your response.
5. Predict two (2) major conflicts that may arise out of nonverbal communication misunderstandings (e.g., words misinterpreted, hand gestures, looks, shoulder shrugs, names of objects, etc.). Suggest two (2) actions that your friend could take in order to diffuse these types of misunderstandings and thus make the workplace more harmonious. Justify your response.