Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Essay

In recent years, diversity and inclusion have emerged as an essential business practice. Why are diversity and inclusion so critical to organizations nowadays? Do they really help organizations achieve better results? Why is it a unique issue in the 21st century workplace? To answer these questions, organizations should look into factors such as globalization. Globalization increases interactions around the world and diversifies the profile of the workforce, which also contributes to the changing composition of the current workforce. While globalization offers extensive opportunities for organizations, it also imposes many challenges that require new responses. Organizations are not only looking for ways to effectively manage a diverse workforce but also to leverage it to achieve better outcomes.

As times are changing, so is the world’s vision of normal. Discrimination and segregation were a huge part of history, but the fact is that in this modern society, culture diversity is the new norm. Companies and organizations incorporate culture diversity in the workplace due to the benefits of various experiences, language skills, and productivity. Employees are the face of the company, and if they have the mentality of prejudice and ethnocentrism, it can affect the success of the business. While most people understand that the world is a melting pot, discrimination still exists in this world and these people are at a disadvantage. Whether it is because they are living in the past, had a bad experience, or have not been exposed to it, the world is a melting pot of culture, gender, and ethnicity. Regardless of how we are different, once “we can learn to appreciate that differences do matter and that becoming aware of those differences will make interactions with others much easier” (Devry University, n.d.).

When looking at diversity in the workplace, many people and companies encourage it. “Cultural diversity has become a defining characteristic of an increasing number of societies” (“Consequences of Cultural diversity” this should be the author and the date). They feel that it is a great thing to have diversity in the workplace, however, what some companies do not think about is the negative effects of having too much diversity in the workplace. “A workforce that has significant differences in ethnicity, race, religion, gender and other individual traits can produce negative effects, especially if not well-managed. These negative effects of diversity are understandable if the work culture does not support tolerance and acceptance of

In the book entitled, Diversity and Public Administration by Harvey L. White and Mitchell F. Rice , White and Rice (2010) stated challenges will form from changes in demographics which are affecting the demands of delivery and visions of products and services. Since 2000, minority population has increased dramatically. In result of minority population increasing, public organizations have a more diverse work environment. In the workplace, diversity can be a benefit. According to the article entitled , “Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace” by David Ingram, Ingram(2015) stated that by have a diverse workplace allows the company to utilize their employees’ cultural difference to strengthen the organizations’ productivity. Another advantage of diverse workplace is that it increase employee’s personal growth. By employees being expose to cultural difference and new ideas, this allows employees to have global perspective on how to conduct business (Ingram,2015). Diversity can also have disadvantages in the workforce. One of the disadvantages is the ability of employees to respect each other cultural differences. Diverse workplace has to endure several challenges and issues.

In reality, as you can see from the positive argument produced above, diversity assist organizations a key advantage in the corporate world. Culture can help an organization to succeed, when diversity is taken into action, non-biased and properly managed can be greatly effective. There is no doubt after researching the arguments for cultural diversity that organizations should invest in a highly

This research paper addresses the importance of diversity training in the workplace. Having realized how pertinent workplace discrimination is globally, this paper will give a broad look into the various ways that diversity is displayed in the workplace. The diversity issues involving gender, sexuality, race, age, culture and religion will be explored,

Organizations who make a commitment to diversity can see a significant impact on business in many ways. Diversity “requires a significant commitment for change to occur” (Delong, 2007, p.9). It is extremely important that leaders understand the commitment and embrace it in order for a positive impact to occur. Employers with diverse cultures and leaders can build positive and successful relationships with customers, suppliers and vendors. They can better attract and retain top talent. All of these equal more financial gain for the company.

From our research, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity that people embrace, each with different implications for a work group’s ability to realize the benefits of its cultural diversity. We use these observations here to examine critically some of the themes and basic assumptions of previous research and to propose new directions for both researchers and practitioners interested in diversity (Ely &Thomas, 2001). When organizations have a diverse economy, it makes the company strong. Once our nation has embrace the changes from the demographics that reap the economic benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. Burns et al. (2012) stated in their investigation that:

Diversity in organizations has become a huge interest within the workplace due to many factors such as globalization, migration, innovation and most importantly because it is morally correct. Generally, as businesses main goal is profit, and the “workforce diversity management is such a pervasive business practice”(Bowes, L. 2013) they need to keep up with global markets. Diversity in Australia is important, as it is one of the most culturally diverse in the world, with 27% of Australian population being born outside of Australia, however the “management of cultural diversity in Australia has only been mediocre” (Fenwick, M. 2011). With only “few Australian firms [having] established diversity management practices” (McCarthy, G 2009) and

The impact of diversity is a successful learning experience for companies, and is equally as important to a company as its mission statement because of the educational and work ethics of its employees. Awareness and knowledge of diversity in addition to the similarities that humans possess can build relationships between employees and employers. Diversity helps employees and employers to be well educated and informed as to what forms a person’s values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Maya Angelou, a famous African American poet, once said, “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their colour,” (Angelou & Johnson, 2014). This quote shows how cultural diversity is widely believed to be a benefit to society, but how do these benefits stretch to the context of a business? This review will be looking into literature surrounding the question, what are the key outcomes of creating and managing a culturally diverse working environment?

Diversity in the workplace is a subject that has gained increased attention in the workplace over the past few years. After all, the impact of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity programs on the nation's work force is undeniable. Women and minorities were the first to dramatically alter the face of the economic mainstream, while gays, persons with disabilities and senior citizens followed not far behind. The result is a diverse American labor force representing a microcosm of our society - yet one that continues to struggle with its identity. Diversity as a social condition is not new to America. We were founded as a nation of Diversity. “America has always been a merger of cultures and, as such, has undergone periods of

The increasing globalisation in today’s world means more interaction between people from different ethical and cultural backgrounds than ever before. Maximising and Capitalising on Workforce diversity is the aim of most organisations today. However, workforce diversity presents both opportunities and challenges in organisations as ideas and practices from different backgrounds combine together, sometimes causing challenges such as communication and benefits such as productivity and creativity. This essay will further analyse the opportunities and challenges that are present in today’s organisations due to workforce diversity.

The workplace has become one of the biggest multicultural settings. Almost half of the work force in the United States is made up of minorities. There are many advantages to having this percentage of people from different cultures throughout our workplace. One is the increase in creativeness. Not only in products that are being created but in the developing of an approach to solving problems. "Other cultures can offer insightful alternatives" (EthoConnect). Another way in which the workplace is affected by this is in productivity and attitudes. When people of all cultures pull together to reach a common goal there are less limited boundaries and there are more global understanding that are used to help reach the world's market place; creating a larger market for products. With this change in productivity in the workplace is more desirable and enjoyable for all employees. The market place has become more global based that workers having a diverse culture base is very important to break down barriers in language and knowledge of certain markets. This affects our lives by more companies hiring more international job seekers.

The business world has many different aspects when looking at it. Everyone is trying to see how they can improve their business, or get it to be the best it can be. Many people have tried many different theories and checked what works and what does not. One of the most debated subjects is the effects of diversity in the work place and if it benefits the work place. People have also looked if having more multicultural employees in your business help the business out, or does it worsen the business by bringing in more conflict in the work environment. After careful research, it is shown that all though there are many draw backs, multicultural diversity does indeed help out a work force more than it has negatives.