Cultural Diversity in Organizations Essay

re b ar-asseding has arrived as a descriptive word for the Ameri piece of tail lifestyle in the modern world. With increasing immigration of tribe from more countries, many races, and many heathen backgrounds to the fall in States, the country has become a nest of assortment.Several factors shape the fact that the turnforce is becoming increasingly cultur everyy diverse women represent an increasing percentage in organizations the oddment in age is becoming more evident on all levels due to continuously changing demands organizations ar employing more and more multitude with diverse professional and specialist backgrounds there is a growing result of immigrants having opposite customs, religions and cultures and finally, the ongoing globalization is causing an influx of a bounteous number of expatriates, who comes from various countries in the world, also contributing with incompatible judge and cultures.This increasing cultural variety show is both an opportunity an d a challenge. conversion brings with it a wide range of creativity and fresh mentation into the system. vicissitude is here, in the population, in the workforce and in the marketplace. Racism, discrimination in the workplace, amicable stratification, and conflicts in social lifestyles atomic number 18 all negative byproducts of motley. Thus cultural transmutation in America is a highly debated issue beca habituate of the legion(predicate) riddles arising due to it.One of the most serious and explosive issues in the United States straightaway is meeting the worry goals at heart an environs of multicultural kind. When companies bolt to create a culture of salmagundi and inclusion effectively, the costs stern be high costs arising due to mixture training and elimination of discrimination lawsuits. Many well-known companies have spent millions of dollars on renewing training, after settling discrimination lawsuits totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, salmagundi also raises issues of inter in-person traffic and communications among employees.This fact is underlined by increasing discrimination and class action at law lawsuits. variation impacts every person, every project, and every transaction in todays business world. Some companies approach it in terms of the perceptible differences among people. What many fail to realize is that potpourri is really about personal interaction and emotions, and creating a incarnate culture that welcomes all kinds of differences. Managing innovation Managing transformation is all about approaching the issue proactively as a business opportunity. at that place needs to be a culture of diversity within the organization. One of the major obstacles in managing diversity is that many companies view diversity as a problem that needs to be solved. They just live with a reactive approach. Supposing there is a lawsuit brought under the personify Employment Opportunity Act, they just take an in itiative that would solve the problem in the short run. Though this approach seems to be successful, in the pertinacious run, there is app arnt to be no impact on the integrated culture in a positive way.Such reactive approaches nookie negatively impact the workforce morale as they dont appear to be a deported consignment to diversity. The path to diversity is non always an easy one. One of the most common obstacles is passion from white male managers who see diversity as threatening to them. Since diversity is typically framed to be about white women and people of color, the coun shifting is rarely on examining what it means to be white and male, say meter Proudman and Michael Welp, Partners at White Men as Full Diversity Partners LLC, a consulting firm based in Portland, Oregon.White men, and sometimes others, thus solve that diversity is not about them (Goffney, 2005) Another obstacle that can lift in a multicultural business environment is resistance to change. When new diversity programs are introduced, it is essential that the employees view it as a genuine effort. Hence, these diversity programs should be tailored to meet the needs of the companys workforce and integrated into the daily environment. Any diversity initiative should be secure to the companys bottom line.Even though choke management may make the commitment to diversity, if the initiative is not tied explicitly to the companys bottom line, it does not become a priority for middle managers. The diversity initiative should be integrated into the tools and processes they use to manage employees, including orientation, training and education, and interpersonal communication. If not, existing employees volition not accept the diversity initiative and new employees are likely to get disappoint with a taste of it.Top management must ensure that the commitment to diversity has buy-in at all levels of the organization by make diversity an integral part of company success. Yet anoth er obstacle to managing diversity is that the diversity initiatives might be restricted to training alone and is left-hand(a) as an HR issue. This narrow focus results relegation of diversity to a single department and companies thus miss out on opportunities to improve and integrate the diversity initiative into other areas of the company. Any corporate initiative should be feedback based, dynamic and flexible.Else, there is the danger that the initiative will remain static. Too often diversity initiatives begin and end with the offset efforts undertaken. Diversity and inclusion are part of company culture, and like the culture, diversity must continue to evolve (Adams and Ruch, 2006). Managing all these obstacles require the ability to value a diverse world. This means there should be individual estimate of judgments about work values. People from differing backgrounds having dissimilar experiences bring to work the biases and veils as well as the strengths that arise out of cultural differences.To work effectively with persons from diverse backgrounds, it is necessary to understand others people from other racial, ethnic and cultural heritages, and people whose values, beliefs and experience are different. This involves learning to recognize when new competencies are needed, knowing how to develop the requisite new competencies, and implementing the competencies effectively. Companies need to assess their republic of diversity What is the state of diversity in our company? Are we making the most of diversity? Do we speak with one voice with heed to diversity?Companies that ask these questions on a continual basis, set strategic goals, measure their progress and evolve their programs in sync with their overall organisational change will be the ones to leverage the full potential of diversity (Adams and Ruch, 2006). Individual Reactions to Diversity Diversity may be viewed positively or negatively depending on the individual reaction to diversity. In a culturally diverse workplace, there is likely to be prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. This is because of self-fulfilling prophecies.The perceiver develops dark belief about a person from a different cultural background. He then treats the person in a manner consistent with that false belief. Ultimately, the person responds to the treatment in such a way to realise the originally false belief. Other negative reactions of individuals to diversity may include tension among mental faculty, distrust of anything new, gossip and rumor, open hostility or bullying, absenteeism, tarnishing of the procedures reputation, low staff retention rates, lack of response to customers and falling standards of service quality (NSW, 2006).In the positive sense, diversity that brings with it community dustup skills and cultural competencies can be seen as valuable assets to an agency (MSASS, 2006). client service improves when employees are able to tackle customers from a range of backgr ounds. When employees are encouraged to learn from one another, their skills and knowledge are also enhanced. Diversity can reduce skill shortages at specific times. In a business, diversity gives the advantage of utilizing the language, international expertise and cultural knowledge of staff to identify successful export opportunities.When employees are encouraged to work in their areas of strength and capability, they are happier, more productive and more likely to expect with the agency. Productive diversity is based on the concept that there are potential economic benefits to be gained from valuing different experience, perspectives, skills and the cross-transfer and integration of these into the agency and local anaesthetic saving. Productive diversity makes good business sense in an environment where local diversity and global interconnectedness play a minute economic role (Muhr, 2006). Diversity effects on groups and police squadsIn the linguistic context of working in g roups or team ups, diversity seems to cause contrasting goals, miscommunication or inter-group anxiety, thereby prohibiting teamwork creativity. Miscommunication and the lack of a common language make it tight for team members to engage in an exchange of ideas and questions, an exchange, which is essential for effective teamwork (Nahapiet & antiophthalmic factor Ghoshal, 1998). If individuals carry out negative stereotyping of outgroups it can prevent them from trusting and winsome with others and can threaten communication patterns within organizations. This is mainly due to a lack of common context and language usage.Anxiety in the team occurs when people identify themselves as placed among people belonging to different diversity categories. Thus, diversity will in this situation make it herculean for the individuals to identify with the team, since there is no unified perception of what values the team represents (Muhr, 2006). In a diverse work team, the values and perception s of different diversity categories may be contrasting or even mutually exclusive, which is likely to bring about incongruence in goals. Incongruence in goals can limit communication, which is implicit in(p) to the creation of interpersonal relationships and trust.Furthermore, goal incongruence may also prevent individuals from sharing and combining knowledge all together, if they are not able to mop up agreement on common goals for pursuing such knowledge processes (Muhr, 2006). On the positive side, it has been shown that diversity in fact improves creativity by promoting variations, thinking out of the box and avoiding groupthink. Several analyses have shown that teams made up of people with different cultural and educational backgrounds, different personalities, different professional backgrounds and different skills are potentially more creative and innovative than relatively equal teams.This is because diversity creates variations variations in perceptions, values, ideas, opinions, and methods, which are highly essential for developing a stimulating creative environment (Mohr, 2006). Conclusion In the global economy today, most companies operate globally. Diversity of thought, culture, geography, race, and gender enables companies to deliver the best solutions to their customers and markets. Diversity pays off both internally and externally.A company that embraces diversity can offer a challenging and creative work environment, and as a result, can attract and retain top talent with diverse backgrounds. There is also a connection between diversity and increased productivity. Diversity also fosters organizational creativity. But despite these benefits of diversity, work teams will not truly benefit from diversity unless sufficient communication, trust and openness are nurtured in the organizational climate.The powerful advantage of embracing diversity in organizations is best brought out by the words of Ted Childs, IBMs vice professorship of global workforce diversity. In a recent issue of firm Company magazine, in a feature article was entitled inconsistency is Power, Ted Childs suggests that, No matter who you are, youre going to have to work with people who are different from you. Youre going to have to sell to people who are different from you, and buy from people who are different from you, and manage people who are different from you.This is how companies do business. If its (diversity) not your destination, you should get off the plane now (Meisner, 2006). Bibliography Adams, Brandon and Ruch, Will (2006). Diversity as a core business strategy. http//www. versantsolutions. com/knowledgecenter/EB_DiversityAsACoreBusinessStrategy2. pdf NSW (2006). What is Diversity? http//www. eeo. nsw. gov. au/diversity/whatis. htm Muhr, Louise Sara (2006). desolation to Diversity Turning conflict into teamwork creativity. Paper submitted for the 10th International shop on Teamworking. http//www. mau.se/upload/IMER/Forskning/Diverse/M uhr%5B1%5D. pdf Nahapiet, J. , & Ghoshal, S. 1998. Social Capital, skilful Capital and the Organizational Advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23(2). MSASS (2006). Valuing a diverse World. http//msass. case. edu/downloads/ schoolman/diverse. pdf Goffney, Phyllia (2005). Champions of Diversity. Essence. May 2005. http//www. findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_1_36/ai_n13660850 Meisner, Lora (2006). The American Quilt Workplace Diversity. http//career. thingamajob. com/general-career. aspx/The-American-Quilt-Workplace-Diversity. aspx