What is Culture? How does it relate to communication, organizational diversity, and dress attire and language.

As the globalization invades our daily activities in present times, individual activities

start to become interrelated across boundaries. Different people might have different backgrounds and their culture that they were brought up around could affect their behavior. Culture is the invisible backbones to our societal body. The purpose of this paper is to identify what a culture is and the Citigroup organization's culture as it relates to communication, organizational diversity, and dress attire and language.

Culture is defined as "the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought" (1993). Culture builds up a particular society's behavior. Business organizations, like social systems require a fast and effective communication system process in order to successfully reach their targets. In the Citigroup organization, the business culture is subjective to the behavior of each individual employee. The business tends to "overemphasize internal causes and underemphasize external causes" (Schermerhorn, 2003, pg. 20).

Communication

Communication in the workplace is vital. It is the foundation for success.

According to Tannen, "every time we open our mouths to speak, we are talking with a leap of faith--faith that what we say will be understood by our listeners more or less as we meant it" (1994). Poor communication can be fatal to the success of a business or organization. "Good communication ensures individuals know what is expected of them and ensures coordination within the organization" (Ball, 2003).

Communication within the Citigroup organization is effective majority of the time. Anytime a change in policy is communicated, a CIB (Change in business) newsletter is sent out to the management staff to communicate with their teams. The employees are given advance notice and trained on how the information should be communicated to the customers. Communication can be improved on the manager to manager level. When projects need to be completed, a lot of times very little direction is given to complete the task. It is the responsibility of the management staff to effectively deliver instruction on how they would like a task or project completed and is willing to answer questions if they arise.

Diversity

Each organization must take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages, when deciding how to manage and achieve a diverse work force. Bringing a wide variety of ideas into the business is a major advantage. The more diverse people, then the more diverse ideas you have. Research suggests, "Diverse groups tend to be more creative and perform better on problem-solving tasks than homogeneous groups, but they also appear to have lower levels of social integration and higher turnover than homogeneous groups" (University of Maryland, 1997, pg. 5).

The Citigroup organization believes that a diverse work force best serves the interests of the employees and the customers. They also believe employees from all backgrounds should believe that opportunities for professional development and advancement are available in the work environment. Citigroup maintains affirmative action programs. These programs involve monitoring work force representation, employment programs and policies.

Dress and Language

Dress attire and appearance should always reflect the highest standard of professionalism. The appearance of the employees plays an important part in how the public perceives the company. In the Citigroup organization, a business casual dress has been adopted. Business casual dress means clothing appropriate for the office. It also means "dressing professionally, looking relaxed yet neat and pulled together" (Boer, 2001, para 3). The purpose of a business casual policy is to provide a comfortable work environment while still projecting a professional image. The employees are required to dress in business casual attire Monday thru Thursday. They are allowed to dress casual Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Language is essential to promoting professionalism in an organization. Language and culture are intimately intertwined as language is the vehicle through ideas and perceptions expressed. Some aspects of a community's culture are expressed in the language they use. The Citigroup organization focuses on maintaining a professional work environment and ensuring that their employees are maintaining an appropriate image when speaking to our 'internal and external' customers.