Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Why diversity is important for employees
Why diversity is important for employees
Why diversity is important for employees
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Why diversity is important for employees
Diversity is the key to growth in today’s aggressively competitive global marketplace. Leaders can no longer hide behind their lack of cultural intelligence, but embrace diversity. To enjoy its benefits. Cultural diversity refers to the varieties of human cultures and the cultural difference that exist in the organization, society or the world as a whole (Amadeo, K., 2014). The characteristics of diversity include race, language, ethnicity, religion, value system, education, nationality, social structure, beliefs, sex, and physical appearances. Cultural diversity is increasingly growing in the United State workforce. A report shows a projection of decline in white working age from 83 percent to 63 percent and an increase in the minority group from 18 percent to 37 percent by 2020 (NCPPHD, 2005). The cultural diversity has contributed substantially to the social and economic growth of the country. Leaders in an organization should not ignore the substantial benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace, but maintained and value it to increase the organization’s reputation and productivity.
The Advantages of Managing Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity can bring tangible benefits to an organization who is ready to foster, maintained, and value the difference in cultures. The marketplace is becoming more competitive, many business executives are expanding and developing new ideas, products and services beyond their usual culture or environment. A diverse workforce will help to understand the need and interest of another culture within and outside of the region. Thereby helping the company to expand globally, acquire more business opportunities, provide opportunities to create an excellent, diverse customer base and remain compe...
... middle of paper ...
...mployees how to work better with diverse boss or teammate, create cultural awareness and teaches cultural sensitivity.
A cross-cultural training will help employees learn and understand the custom and beliefs of another culture. Encourages employees to appreciate and see the benefit another can bring into the workplace. The cross-cultural training helps leaders develop global skills for dealing with people or business partner from another culture. The training will not only ensure diversity, but prepares the organization’s leaders for the global market.
In conclusion, as businesses are becoming globally each day and productivity and profitability depends on good interactions with diverse groups. A leader who embraces the importance and the principles of leading an effective, diverse group, will reap the fulfillment and the benefits of being a multicultural leader.
Employees require exposure to and training of the different multicultural aspects such as appropriate greetings, celebrated holidays, and traditional customs. “Companies with a diverse multicultural workforce tend to rely on workshops to develop knowledge management skills among people from different backgrounds” (Maham, 2013, p. 1094). Training and education should comprise of universal internal and external awareness and sensitivity; along with individualized cultural needs of the
...ounds bring different talents and suggestions to problems. If the workplace is not diverse, problem-solving could be more challenging. Broader service range is also a benefit from diversity in the workplace. Having employees with diverse skills and experiences, such as speaking different languages and understanding other cultures, allows companies to provide services to customers all over the world.
The world is a forever changing climate of people. This requires companies to change with the times. The introduction of different cultures, beliefs, and diverse backgrounds requires a new approach for managing a larger arrange of people. People no longer work in a time of intolerance. Diversity is about the many things that make us individuals and also the similarities that bring us together. Companies should diversify the organizations because it is shown that diversification will increase profits, build a more cohesive work environment, and show appreciation for foreign culture.
Manage cultural differences: In this strategy, project managers try to find both pros and cons due to cultural diversity. They try to always utilize the advantages and manage the disadvantages. They look forward to handle the challenges rather than minimizing the diversity in the organization. Since they want to handle these differences, both project managers and employees need to train themselves about cultural
Advancing the mission and effectiveness of a multicultural organization relies on the ability for a leader to understand the personality traits and individual differences of his/her workforce or team. House, Hanges, Javidan, and Gupta (2004), noted that managers of global organizations are being forced to make critical decisions at alarming rates due to the advancement of globalized competition. Makela, Andersson and Seppala (2012) postulated that a multicultural or global organization expands its capabilities to grow by its ability to distribute and assimilate knowledge across different geographical, cultural and social contexts as expressed through the lens of their global team members. Maria and Lozano (2010) posited
... will help people from different culture work efficiently together. The change would be in communication, leadership and organization. In the video, five people finally realize that they have to manage the culture difference before they can talk about business. They figure out the way to have a better communication by using simple English and also they could like to phone call and fax both to satisfy people from different culture. Furthermore, strategic change will be implemented which means to adapt or create organization policies which take into account cultural differences. Particular attention should be paid to policies or programs that have been developed to meet the requirements of one culture and are then imposed internationally. The key thing to work with people from different culture is to manage the cultural difference and cope to different cultures.
Schein in his book “Organizational Culture and Leadership” explains how different believes and behaviors start to be logical when we understand their cultures by stating “When we learn to see the world through cultural lenses, all kinds of things begin to make sense that initially were mysterious, frustrating, or seemingly stupid” (2010, p. 13). This kind of foresight should be the starting point in order to manage the tremendously growing diversity in the workforce nowadays. Leaders and administrators of both public and private organizations through their influence are responsible to promote and manage diversity in an ethical manner.
For the purpose of this paper, I will define what the term Diversity means, and then I will concentrate on the diversity as a result of geographic origin or ethnic diversity. I will look at how ethnic diversity is managed generally and then how my employer, deals with the diverse ethnic groups in its organization and what it needs to improve on.
Leaders should have multicultural and global perspectives for several reasons. Leaders should be able to overcome personal bias of those from other countries and eliminate any cultural ignorance by understanding cultural stereotypes. It is important to understand cultural uniqueness and building relationships between different cultures. This can be done by becoming more culturally aware, appreciating each other’s differences, and by learning of each other’s similarities.
Interpersonal understanding skills are crucial in instilling the desired ethics and behaviors among the employees. In order to gain these skills, the manager needs to have knowledge on cultural diversity,
And, culturally diverse entities may confront barriers creating negative outcomes, or, may witness greater innovation by harnessing the strengths of multiple perspectives (Jager & Raich, 2011). Organizations able to embrace diversity foster an environment conducive to employees sharing of ideas, allotting the organization to benefit from the open exchange and collaboration of employees (Lambert, 2016). Bhasin and Kaushik (2013) identify the importance of recognizing cultural influence as more than just national heritage, but also religious, gender, ethnic, and regional
...understanding of the multiple diverse cultures out there that are dealt with in everyday international business life.
In today’s globalized world, multicultural teams accomplish a significant proportion of organizational work. Multicultural teams are formed because they improve organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. As such, multicultural teams offer huge potential to organizations. The most critical and practical challenge multicultural teams face is managing conflicts across members’ national cultural boundaries. Other cultural challenges in multicultural teams include dealing with coordination and control issues, maintaining communication richness, and developing and maintaining team cohesiveness. For multicultural teams to be effective, members must learn to address the challenges that arise from team members’ differing nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
As the organizations are becoming increasingly global and diverse in nature, leaders must create environment in the organization, which allows cultural mindset to thrive among diverse employees (Smith & Victorson, 2012). Hiring diverse employees is becoming a norm for today’s human resource departments of various organizations for getting the competitive edge in the global market. Diverse employee bring different perspectives and cultural mindset into the workplace. To reap the maximum potential of all of the employees’ knowledge, leaders must create an inclusive culture to integrate varied perspectives (Vora, 2004).
There are numerous characteristics that are essential for managers to build and sustain multicultural team. These include the skills of international business knowledge and culture specific knowledge. The understanding people have of a particular country’s beliefs, behaviors, principles, and customs is known as culture specific knowledge. Current global leaders must be familiar with the business environment in which they work. According to Mcshane & Von Gilnow (2007), this supports their instinct to pinpoint prospects and know the business ability to apprehend those prospects.