Role Of The Cultural Perspective When Dealing With Conflict

Managing Diversity in the workplace is more than just an acquired skill, it is "a way of thinking" (1). It involves creating an environment that allows all employees to contribute to organizational goals and experience personal growth. The key is to help employees reach their full potential by creating an environment that will allow them to be motivated and productive and ultimately, be beneficial for the organization.

As one would expect, we are also seeing a diversification of the American workforce. While most would agree that diversity within the workforce can build a positive workplace environment, it is

Indeed, diversity is an important aspect of the workforce. Ranging from race to religion and the world are comprised of diverse cultures and identities. From my own experience of working finding common ground is paramount for success. First Peter 2:17 says, “Honor all men, Love the believers. Fear God. Honor the King.” (King James Version). Adopting this as an individual attitude for managing diversity in the workplace is good for an organization. “Cultural diversity in the workplace is currently a hot topic. (Castpoint, 2017, para 3), “Our worldview determines our assumptions, and assumptions determine emotions, which in turn determine our behavior.” (CastPoint, 2017, para. 4), “Values Covenant: removes the worst, takes

Cultural diversity can be defined as the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society. On the surface, many may think cultural diversity in the workplace is pretty self explanatory. However, if you go a little deeper you will find that diversity in the workplace not only consists of culture, but also race, religion, communication, background, and demographics all which play an important role in what configures the differences within a workplace. Understanding the root of why people act a certain way, have a specific dress code, or how they approach conflict may possibly be the difference between an innovative, productive work environment and an inefficient, non productive work environment. It’s important that those in the workplace try their best to get along and not pass judgment on those who seem different from first glance. Ensuring cultural understanding makes sure that entire chain of command operates smoothly to allow the business to perform at maximum potential.

Choice of not seeing diversity of culture results in limiting the ability for its management. This involved minimizing the issues being caused while there is maximization of advantages and key benefits allowed (Latimer, 2012). When there is lack of consideration across diversity of culture, foreigners end up becoming mere projections related to organizations.

The company Enron was formed in 1985 after two natural gas companies, Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth merged together. Kenneth Lay, former chief executive officer of Houston Natural Gas was named CEO of Enron and a year later, Lay was assigned to the chairman of Enron. A few years later, Enron launched a website to allow customers to buy stock for Enron, making it the largest business site in the world. The growth of Enron was rapid; it was even named seventh largest company on the Fortune 500 list; however things began to fall apart in 2001. (News, 2006). In the third quarter of that same year, Enron posted an enormous loss of over $600 million in four years. This is one of the reasons why one of the top executive resigned even though he had only after six months on the job. Their stock prices fell dramatically. Eventually, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection. This caused many investors to lose money they had invested in the company and employees to lose their jobs and their investments, including their retirement funds. The filing of bankruptcy and the resignation of one of the top executives, also led to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee, which proved to be one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history. (News, 2006). All former senior executives stood trial for their illegal practices.

Addressing cultural conflicts begins by mastering the story behind the problem (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2013). Hauk and Mueller (2015) suggest three variables common to such stories; the cultural leaders, the cultural perspectives, and the incentives that compel each group to engage or disengage in negotiation. Understanding these components offers insights to open potential doors to negotiate an acceptable resolution.

A diverse and inclusive workplace can help to generate new ideas which can foster creativity and innovation. This allows employees from different backgrounds and cultures to build trust amongst one another as well as boost self-confidence.

As companies become more diverse in the work field employees are getting harder to manage and understand. One issue in the global market today is workplace diversity. Workplace diversity is defined as all characteristics and experiences that defined each employee as individuals, but it can also be misunderstood as discrimination against employees. Diversity can include race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability and sexual orientation discrimination. One reason why workplace diversity is important is because when you respect your employees productivity rate rises and many companies do not know that. A diverse workplace targets to create an inclusive culture that values and uses the talents of all employees.

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

Currently I am employed with a company that some may say is the 'melting pot' of diversity. Working for Corporate Safeway, now Albertsons-Safeway, I can appreciate how judgement free the environment is in our work place. They are open to hiring minorities, LGBT, (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender), disabled veterans and that's just to name a few. Hiring a staff that is of many different cultures, nationalities and belief backgrounds is a great way to show the awareness of diversity. I am a true believer that a great business starts at the top. If management can provide their employees with the skills and knowledge of working in a diverse setting this will lead to a steady and smooth work environment. Knowing how to properly and correctly carry yourself is the first step in working with the different variety of customers or co-workers you may encounter.

In today’s society there are many culturally diverse people in the workforce. Most organizations can no longer make the assumption that every employee has similar beliefs or expectations. When entering into the global marketplace, people are considered one of the most valuable resources to an organization’s success. A well-managed culturally diverse workforce has the potential to thrive if managed correctly; or if mismanaged, there can be devastating negative attributes. With great expectations, culturally diverse employees can foster positive outcomes in the workplace. A company’s acknowledgement to embrace diversity and change, and implement the value of management techniques are

Ping Ping Fu and Gary Yukl believed that people from different cultures deal with the difficulties of exercising influence differently. According to Smith and Peterson, to understand cultural differences, international relationship, and various influences in cross-cultural cooperation are necessary for managers under 21st century globalization. The authors also believed that the managers who have strong cultural awareness

After the involvement of globalization in the 19th century, there has been an increase in global business environment. Most companies are going multinational and building teams that cross national borders and migrate members from different countries to achieve the competitive advantage and gain benefits from concentrating skillset of people around the globe. Although a large portion of these teams are intended to pool resources and increment operational efficiencies, the cultural diversity of team members may create a better learning curve for establishing effective process than culturally homogeneous groups (Gibson & Vermeulen, 2003). Culture contrasts can also make considerable obstacles to successful operation, however these may be unobtrusive and hard to perceive until significant damage has already been done. Managers and individuals from multicultural teams are confronted with the challenge of how to get most of an individual 's qualities, while minimizing coordination misfortunes from communication problems, misunderstandings, language differences and varying work style. According to the above points, this essay will describe the managerial role for controlling the multi-cultural team with different mode of communication preferences, and will give an appropriate example by relating it with relevant academic literature.

This paper is a report on cross-cultural management, with the issues related to cross-cultural management being discussed in the paper. Additionally, the report has produced the future way of cross-cultural management, including how it can be improved in offices relying much on this strategic approach.