Essay on Diversification within American Organizations

As we enter the new millenium, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Businesses and organizations are living up to the great melting pot image the United States has always been popular for. Employees now reflect a diversity of cultural perspectives, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, physical abilities, and levels of education. This wave of multiculturalism is here to stay and cannot be ignored. It is in need of attention in order to uphold the well-being and success of businesses and organizations all over the country.

Gender relations and gender identities are critical aspects of culture because they shape the way daily life is lived in the family, but also in the larger community and within the workplace. Gender (like race or ethnicity) functions as an organizing principle for society because of the cultural meanings given to being male or female. This is apparent in the overall understanding of gender. In most societies, there are obvious patterns of “women’s work” and “men’s work,” both in the household and in the wider community, and cultural explanations support this. The patterns and explanations vary among societies and change over time.

Diversity is what makes people different, not just culturally but in human differences. Having a multitude of differences in the workforce gives an organization the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can accomplish greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of individuals. Managers understand the concept of diversity, and how important diversity is to the success of a company’s ability to implement programs that continue to develop a harmonious and diverse workplace. The recognition that diversity is a reality in the workforce has generated an enormous amount of activity over the years among leaders in business, government, and civil

The United States is often referred to as a “melting pot” because of the diversity of its people. People from hundreds of countries with different cultures, languages, religious beliefs, and different ethnicities have come to the United States seeking a better opportunities and a better way of life. Melting pot is defined as “a place where a variety of races, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a cohesive whole” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). For the purpose of analyzing diversity in the workplace, it is necessary to also define “cohesion.” Cohesion is defined as the act or state of sticking together tightly; especially: unity” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.).

In Diversity Training, we discuss the many benefits to and steps to becoming a thriving organization in today’s global workplace. After working with this course, you will be able to:

with its people. More and more leaders are realizing that they just don’t connect naturally

The journal presented this week discusses the newly diversified workplace. Global companies are no longer the only entities with multicultural workforces. Encouraging diversity within teams or departments requires experienced leaders who can harmonize the cultures present.

The US contains a highly diverse population, the product of numerous and sustained waves of immigration. Ethnic and racial diversity - the "melting pot" - is celebrated as a core element of the American ideology.

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

Diversity is an issue we have discussed, it has triggered different types of problems in an organization. In recent years the topic of diversity has become a vital strategy towards improving acceptance of individual differences in an organization. Companies that expand their business to a global market face diversity in a higher intensity than those companies that only do business in their own countries.

Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) women 's values differ less among societies than men 's values; (b) men 's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women 's

Masculinity values are those who are determined, fierceness, performance, and the acquisition of money and material objects. Whereas for femininity values are focus on quality of life, maintaining personal relationship, and care for the weak and the environment are emphasized (Rees & Edwards, 2011). In Hofstede et al. (2010), masculinity are high in Japan, German, Italy, and Mexico. According to Hofstede 's analysis, if you were to open an office in Japan, you might have greater success if you appointed a male employee to lead the team and had a strong male contingent on the team. In country like Sweden, there are more to feminine side. They will focus a group which can balance in terms of skills rather than gender significance.

The world's increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity

The development and implementation of a cohesive cultural mindset can pose a challenge for a leader of a diverse population of employees. The factors that can pose the biggest challenge is the growing global marketplace and the competitiveness of the competition. This is due to organizations worldwide transitioning to become globalized. According to Prewitt, Weil and McClure (2011), globalizing an organization has ostensibly astounded many corporations and their leaders. Due to quick strides and deficiency of preparation many leaders have with overseeing and supporting numerous groups throughout the world. The corporate mindset determines to what extent management encourages and values cultural diversity, while simultaneously maintaining a certain degree of strategic cohesion.  The purpose of cultural diversity in an organization is formulating factors of things they cannot alter by utilizing sensitive influences surrounding your existing culture inversely (Katzenbach, Oelschlegel and Thomas, 2016). The inclusive leader’s role is to understand each individual’s cultural difference and use that to integrate new cultural meaning into the organization. To advance in a cultural mindset, inclusion leaders must understand how to integrate a culturally diverse perspective, develop strategies to create a common cultural mindset and cultivate appropriate communication methods amongst a diverse global population of employees.

The world is experiencing unprecedented changes in the structure and operation of organizations. This has increased the challenges that confront organizations. New competition from unexpected places is a huge challenge. So are the cultural issues that come with a diverse, opinionated, and often far-flung workforce.