Assessing the impact of language diversity on communication : a narrative inquiry conducted at a South African stevedoring company

Abstract

Prior to 1994, South Africa was a country that had segregation among race groups due to apartheid legislation. Post 1994 South Africans had to deal with the combining of culture and races. The merging of communities required businesses to employ previously disadvantaged groups for a more diverse organisation. Although this produces superior results over uniformity, since development and creativity are more reliant on diversity working together and capitalising on their individuality than on high-intelligence sole thinkers (Herring, 2009). It also has its own set of unique challenges, according to Herring (2009) diversity can present conflict, separating a nation and other issues that diminishes an organisations effectiveness and productivity. There is a rising pressure placed on employers and employees for accountability in the workplace and an increasing importance for evaluation of performance (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). Twenty-three years post-democracy South Africa faces many challenges in various sectors of society. Living in a rainbow nation means living amongst people of different nationalities, beliefs and customs. At the organisation which this research is based upon, there are people of varying races and culture. The problem with this is that in a predominantly English medium of instruction, the employees who communicate via other languages are finding it difficult to understand and follow instruction. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the impact of language diversity on communication at a South African stevedoring company. This study was driven by three research questions, namely: What are the identities of the participants of the study? Secondly, what are the employee experiences of the effects of language diversity on communication? And lastly, how does communication style between the participants affect the rate of productivity at the workplace? This research study was supported by using the principles of the Social Identity Theory and the Communication Accommodation Theory. The paradigmatic approach used viewed this research study through the lens of the interpretivist paradigm in order to understand and learn from the narratives of casual employees at a South African stevedoring company. This research study was performed within the boundaries of the qualitative design. The narrative inquiry methodology was applied to this study in order for the researcher to narratively explore the lived experiences of the participants. Five participants were selected for this study by putting into effect the principles of the purposeful sampling method. Field texts (data) were generated by employing the unstructured interviews and the collage inquiry method. The generated data was then analysed through two methods of analysis. These methods are the narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. The findings of this study show that one of the key components of high productivity is effective communication. Due to many employees including all five participants being second language (Isizulu) speaking, a barrier to language could be considered as a communication barrier. Communication barriers arise when the individuals involved speak in completely different languages from one another (van Rosse et al., 2016). Language barrier or linguistics barrier can be defined as miscommunication (Harzing and Feely, 2008). In any company or organisation, communication is the pillar of strength for any organisation, and poor communication has severe repercussion to productivity. The success of an organisation depends heavily on the flexibility and the effectiveness of the internal organisational communications between all levels of employees. For this reason, it is the job of managers to lead employees with effective communication.