Professional Immigrant Women in Medium and Large Organizations in the USA: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Communication Conflicts that Arise from Language

Cultural diversity is increasing in workplaces around the world, and developed countries are receiving more immigrants than developing countries every year. The result of the immigration phenomenon in the United States is that more immigrants are integrating into workplaces, which creates more opportunities for interaction. Managing diversity is still a challenge for organizations and countries, and particularly for countries that are high immigrant receivers. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews so professional immigrant women could describe their experiences and share their perspectives on being in the workplace in the United States. Through professional immigrant women's perspectives and their voices, a database was established from which data were coded, compared, categorized, further coded, and analyzed using phenomenological methodology. The participants described their experiences in the United States, and differences between their expectations and their actual experiences; because of the cultural gaps between their home countries and the United States, professional women encountered adjustment difficulties with respect to verbal and nonverbal conflicts in the host country. To overcome such difficulties, professional women employed several strategies to cope with the verbal conflicts. They also had to adjust their body language by providing more distance than in their home country and not touching the listener. This study has implications for professional immigrant women and for organizations. Since there are increasing numbers of people with multicultural backgrounds in organizations, related issues will not dissipate soon; therefore, organizations should understand the context of multiculturalism. Professional immigrant women in this study advised newcomers not to listen to people from their countries who are not supportive of them in advancing their careers; they also advised newcomers to work harder to reach their goals and ignore any negative attitudes from their own people.