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Managing cultural diversity in the workplace
Multiculturalism in organizations
Managing cultural diversity in the workplace
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Benchmark - Analysis of Inclusive Leadership
Being a leader in the world today, requires leaders and their subordinates to excel in aspects apart from just diversity to seize the possibility of incorporating inclusion. The need to develop a leadership style that is conducive to all employees is vital to all organizations or companies. Accordingly, leadership plays a pivotal role in determining the success or downfall of an organization. Per, Grover, Porter and Morphet (2017), developing a compelling team complete with a solid leadership model and interactive competencies are a critical ability to have to endure the demanding requirements within an organization. Employing individuals from Greece, Germany, Singapore and Iran calls for an inclusive
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There are numerous leadership skills leaders utilize within a global organization to integrate inclusion. To create an inclusive organization the leader must consider methods that will influence employees that incorporates a diverse cultural organization. Per Bourke and Dillon (2016), inclusive leadership requires six C’s of success in a global organization. The Cs includes; commitment, curiosity, courage, cognizance, Collaboration and cultural intelligence. Commitment encompasses the leader is driven by fairness. The leader’s beliefs and values motivates them to put energy and time into change the work environment. The leader leads with experiences on how to change the organization into one that is inclusive due to the diverse population of employees. Curiosity provides the leader with determination to constantly strive to learn new things. Leaders that are filled with curiosity have an open-mind, a hunger for knowledge, and a passion for uncovering distinctive concepts (Bourke, 2016). A leader that has courage will ask others for help in the decision-making process. They are not afraid to acknowledge when they need others’ opinions and help. Courage permits the leader to challenge others and utilize their strengths to aid in developing an inclusive
Social change and charity have two different effects on the community in chapter one of Leadership for a Better World by Susan R. Komives. Chapter one discusses the differentiation in the ideas when one is more practical in a culture. Social change is defined as affecting the root of the social problem (Komives 11). An example of social change is the Civil Rights Movement, where Martin Luther King Jr. led groups of people to end segregation. King wasn’t just trying to help the problem of having sit in the back of the bus or drinking from different water fountains, his objective was to generate an equal society where racial segregation didn’t exist. Charity classification as donating food, money, and other kinds of goods is given to a community. An illustration of this is the local soup kitchen, where they provide food for the
The modern world has experienced tremendous changes, which have contributed to changes in people living in the global world. These changes have mainly been brought by globalization, which is a major phenomenon in the 21st Century. Leaders across various professions, businesses, and governments need to cope with globalization since it forces them to cross borders more often and communicate or conduct business with people from other cultures. This process involves developing necessary skills for working effectively in the modern complex world. Actually, the ability of these leaders to work effectively not only requires the development of essential skills but the application of leadership principles in the global work environment. In essence, leaders must develop their ability to apply leadership principles across culturally diverse workforce in today’s global work environment.
They have to understand and practice the tools needed to manage a diverse workplace. As discussed in The Loudest Duck leaders can employ these methods to obtain a harmonious, all-inclusive environment: appreciate, promote, employ and celebrate diversity. Leaders must show appreciation and interest in the diversity of their workforce, not just look at percentages and how those are fulfilled but truly engage in understanding and developing the challenges and successes diversity brings. They need to understand how their subconscious is predisposed towards other's differences and develop a character and attitude that is not biased or predisposed to people and situations that are only similar to them. It's important for leaders to have an open-door policy that encourages sharing thoughts, rationale and feelings will help unify the diverse workforce. Leaders more than others need to understand that for a company to succeed everyone needs to feel valued and appreciated regardless of the
Denisco & Barker, (2016) discusses the foundation of leadership and the four conceptual pillars that comprise it. Understanding the leadership is a responsibility of an APN, the following final question was posed to Ms. Gordner. “Of the four pillars of leadership; professionalism, inspirational motivation, interpersonal relationships, and business skills, do you feel that one is more important than another, and why?” She responded,
Diversity management initiatives are long term and strategic in focus. They strive not only to recruit, but to actively develop, promote and capitalize on the different skills and perspectives of minority employees (Marquis, 2007.) Every day, peopl...
Hyun, Jane. “Leadership Principles for Capitalizing on Culturally Diverse Teams: The Bamboo Ceiling Revisited.” Leader to Leader. 16 Mar. 2012: 14-19. Web. 2 Apr. 2014 < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ltl.20017/abstract >
Diversity in the workplace is very important in today’s global workforce because workers in the economy all over the world are currently made up of many different ethnicities, varied cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. People that are involved in management such as managers, and supervisors could greatly benefit from being accustomed to diversity in the workplace because their job entails dealing with a multicultural work environment on a daily basis. Knowing how to handle diversity in the workforce and having the necessary skills for supervisors would be beneficial not only to them but also to the success of the company and economy because a strong, diversified workforce will create a more “creative, innovative, and productive workforce.” (Kerby, 2012).
B.M. Bass developed a study in 1985 on leadership in the western world which focused on western leaders and how they influenced their subordinates. What he found was that leaders across organizations shared similar attributes. He referred to this style as “transformational leadership”. Through this style, leaders “inspire followers to transcend self-interest for the good of the organization and can have an extraordinary effect on their followers” (Robbins & Judges, 2012:188). Bass discovered that cultures that used this leadership style placed importance on the development of individual’s work performance within organizations. Using his research, Bass was able to organize the behaviors of what he deemed transformational leadership into four categories: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Each category is a different form of influence that the leaders have over their followers which allow them to affect diverse groups of people. Since the theory was based on a study of western leaders, the transformational leadership theory can be viewed as bias in a western context. In other words, this style of leadership may be more effective in western organizations than eastern organizations due to the differing cultural values. However, there are examples of transformational leaders in each culture.
On a more individual level, openness to human diversity plays a role in adjusting to the changes of the future. People are discovering that even within cultures, individuals come from diverse backgrounds, have different personalities, and prefer different ways of life. Young leaders can build a stronger relationship with their followers as they enhance their own appreciation for human diversity. As people become more diverse, leaders must learn how to communicate with them as individuals if a vision is to be shared, a cohesive group to be formed, and a goal to be achieved. Despite differences in opinions, the leader and followers can work together to complement each other as they move toward the mission of the group. By exposing themselves to all kinds of situation and communicating with many types of people, young leaders can develop an appreciation of human diversity. Conflicts caused by differences among individuals' personalities and cultures have created many ethical issues, and the number will only increase in this global society.
In this changing world, one that is seeing companies taking advantage of the global economy, words such as diversity and inclusion need to be treated as more than just buzz-words. The principals that embrace diversity and allow for inclusion are critical if an organization is going to succeed in the business world of today and of tomorrow.
Barak, M. E. (2005). Managing diversity: toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Schein in his book “Organizational Culture and Leadership” explains how different believes and behaviors start to be logical when we understand their cultures by stating “When we learn to see the world through cultural lenses, all kinds of things begin to make sense that initially were mysterious, frustrating, or seemingly stupid” (2010, p. 13). This kind of foresight should be the starting point in order to manage the tremendously growing diversity in the workforce nowadays. Leaders and administrators of both public and private organizations through their influence are responsible to promote and manage diversity in an ethical manner.
There are several factors that are important if a culturally diverse business team is to flourish and realize its vast potential. Di Stefano and Maznevski (2000) claim that there are three imperative steps to achieving multicultural team success; namely, mapping the team; where the team members need to clearly understand their cultural differences in how they work and view success. This is often led by the team leader. Next, the team must bridge, that is, to communicate with one another, bearing in mind their cultural differences. Finally, the team must integrate, meaning that they bring together these differences and leverage on them to succeed.
It is very common in this day and age to become discontent with where you are at in leadership. One of the reasons for this discontentment can be because influencing all of those around us is not an easy thing to do. If we are to not only stay content, but also excel in leadership we must keep in mind that ninety-nine percent of leadership does not come from the top of any given organization, but the middle. John C. Maxwell, author of The 360-Degree Leader, speaks to us about the principles that leaders can use to bring value and influence to any organization from any level within the organization, enabling them to do, what John C. Maxwell describes as leading up, leading across, and leading down.
Today’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be able to articulate the differences between affirmative action, managing diversity, understanding and valuing diversity to build skills that transforms awareness into productive and supportive workplace behaviors.