Cultural Diversity And The Perspectives From Manager 's Competences And Leadership Style

Diversity is vital in today's workplace. Having a diverse workforce opens up a wealth of possibilities and helps to encourage creativity and innovation.

Diversity in any organisation includes hiring and promoting a workforce of people with differences. These differences include race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical abilities and economic backgrounds. The premise of a diverse workplace is that employees are

Over the decades, diversity in the workplace has started to become a business necessity. But what does diversity actually mean? In broad terms, diversity encompasses a group of people with different biological characteristics such as age, race, gender, ethnicity disability and so on. However, the true definition of diversity in the workplace is about ensuring that every single person that goes to work everyday have the freedom to bring along their full self to work and it is not just about welcoming but it is about embracing and harnessing the diversity of thought, the diversity of background, the diversity of experience, the diversity in education, and not just the traditional aspects in diversity. Even so, one of the major challenges that

In order to form a leadership that keep on with the passage of time, international leaders and managers ought to demonstrate likely competences in cross-cultural cognizance and practice. It is vital they recognize the value of leadership and managerial potentials, and to grow and sustain effective leadership approaches and methods for abiding diversity management (Ulrich and Smallwood, 2012). The conjecture emerges is that successful and effective international leaders and managers holds key to solve the secret of working with diverse workforce and dealing with them for the purpose of organizational development in order to enhance competitiveness.

As it mentioned in the class lecture, typically, workplace diversity is the presence of individuals who are different by race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and sexual preference. This topic shows us about how to deal with diversity

In today’s society, with various changes occurring in demographics because of globaliza- tion it is important to focus on a more diverse workplace. Managing a more diverse workplace may cause challenges. However it will benefit the company

Global and cultural diversity are the biggest and most important challenges that organizations face in nowadays. The diversity of the workforce means that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, ethnic origin, for health, occupation, etc. Diversity is an advantage in this global world, and it cannot be considered as a disadvantage in obtaining opportunities (McGuire & Mammed, 2010).

In response to the growing diversity in the workforce around the world, many companies have instituted specific policies and programs to enhance recruitment, inclusion, promotion, and retention of employees who are different from the privileged echelons of society. The privileged groups may vary from one country to the next. The workforce of the world is a dynamic environment, and in order for this dynamism to be put to use for the benefit of organizations, they must develop an effective strategy for managing diversity. Global Diversity Management refers to the voluntary organizational actions that are designed to create greater inclusion of employees from various backgrounds into the formal and informal organizational

The purpose of this paper is to understand the leadership competencies needed when managing diversity within an organization from an empirical article titled “Leadership Competencies for Managing Diversity” (Linde, Havenga, Visagie, 2011). Furthermore, an in depth look at examinations of different leadership styles theories will be included to explain their differences and how each style ranks when managing diversity in organizations. A definitive look at how experiences of managers can convey their leadership styles by referencing the diversity leadership competency model. Specifically, how to identify the kind of leadership competency styles often found in organizations and to determine how they are developed related to diversity management for organizations to sustain their success. Experiences related in the workplace and how diversity is viewed or treated pertaining to race, gender, generational groups and how leadership style has an overall effect in organizations. To conclude that based on the studies and evidence presented overall resulted in a positive evaluation.

In a world that has grown increasingly smaller due to mass media, world travel, and readily available information, the workplace has grown increasingly diverse in both gender and cultural aspects. Individuals no longer live and work within the confines of their geographic locations. At almost any position with any company the individual employee is a part of a larger world economy that harvests assets from the ends of the earth. Because of this, companies seek to capitalize on diversity to become more creative and flexible in their business models.

Diversity in an important aspect in the work place since the world is changing and organizations are forced to evolve with changing times. Diversity in the workplace entails bringing together different people from various backgrounds, education levels, point of views, and ways of thinking. This kind of diversity promotes innovation and is a major contributor to the cultural identity of successful organizations. Global demographic trends coupled with social cultural shifts have brought about increased pressure on organizations to embrace diversity, especially in U.S. As stated by McInnes (1999), “more and more organizations are embracing policies and practices to value diversity in their work forces as a way to increase competitiveness, build talent, expand organizational capabilities, and enhance access to diverse customers.” Diversity becomes an important strategy in an organization only when it is intentionally promoted and encouraged. When we allow diversity to become a vital factor in decision-making and planning, it becomes a powerful business strategy because it allows room for discussion and expression of ideas from various demographics and backgrounds. If truly embraced and cultivated, diversity can be a strategic advantage that moves an organization to higher levels.

If a company wishes to expand worldwide, a diverse workforce can improve communication between countries that they may wish to work with, resulting in higher sales and profits. Diversity gives employees a deeper understanding of different cultures enabling them to adapt accordingly.

Before anyone can truly understand the issues surrounding diversity within our workforce, it is safe to say that they have to understand the meaning. Workforce diversity is defined as diversity amongst employees that represents both a challenge and opportunity for business. Today, the U.S. workforce is as diverse as it has ever been, and it is becoming even more so (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). Some of the diversity we are seeing are as followed, but not limited to:

Diversity in workforce “include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience”(Thomas 1992). Diversity in the workforce is initially perceived as a response toward the increasing diversity of the consumers in the market (Agocs & Burr, 1996). From there, it has been observed that capitalizing on existing differences among the employees provide benefits to the organization. Diversity in workforce fosters and encourages

Many opportunities are associated with a culturally diverse workplace and global expansion may have potential to provide just such a diverse work group. Cross-culturalism in business can provide leaders and employees with a wonderful opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures. In addition, “the more opportunities for business leaders to interact with people from different cultures, the more likely they will be to have positive attitudes from different cultures and identify, learn and apply diverse culturally-appropriate business behaviors” (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2012, p. 614). Culturally diverse environments offer a multitude of benefits including “the variety of perspectives, skills and personal attributes” (Matveeve & Nelson, 2004, p. 254). Moreover, multicultural teams have potential to “generate more ideas of higher quality in brainstorming tasks” (Matveeve &