Multicultural Diversity in Organization:
Benefits and Challenges
Vivek Saxena
Abstract
In today’s rapidly increasing globalizing world, organizations are no longer working in isolation and the cultural diversity is as much relevant as the economic diversity. For an organization to cope up with the increasing competition, understanding and managing the cultural diversity has become more significant now than ever before. Diversity brings creativity, innovation and effectiveness in the way organizations perform, but it may also generate conflicts, differences and frictions among teams. In a hurry to promote the diversity in organization, managers must first understand the benefits and the challenges of diversity in workplace. This paper investigates
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Also the conflict is maximized when multiple subcultures exist in a heterogeneous group. Earley & Mosakowski (2000) have found that there are more conflicts, less communication and low identification of members among a culturally heterogeneous work group. This may lead to less effectiveness and negative outcome for an organization creating a social barrier. However in contrast, Blau (1977) in his work highlights the point that a highly culturally heterogeneous group may be even more effective and the barriers as presented in Earley & Mosakowski (2000)’s work can be weakened due to the fact that highly heterogeneous groups will be evenly diffused over the categories of cultural …show more content…
Here I will explore the research already conducted to investigate the potential advantages of diversity at workplace.
Cox, 1991; Cox and Blake, (1991) argued that “managing diversity can create a competitive advantage, better decision making higher creativity and greater success and a better distribution of economic opportunity.”
Adler (1991) argues that diverse organizations are better recruiters, they better understand the people across the globe and they are effective in managing the talents and skills of their employees, this leads to competitive advantage for them in an already competitive world.
With the increased understanding of managing a pool of diverse employees, these multicultural organizations are better equipped to enter into the foreign land and adapt quickly with the foreign economical, social, political, legal and cultural environment.
Morgan (1989) in his paper simply proposes the idea that “creativity thrives on diversity.” A research based organization is with its diverse pool, displays higher creativity and
Cañas, K. A. & Sondak, H. (2011). Opportunities and challenged for workplace diversity: Theory, cases, and exercises. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Cañas, K. A., & Sondak, H. (2014). Opportunities and challenges of workplace diversity: Theory, cases, and exercises (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Workforce diversity refers to the existence of individuals with different cultural, economic and social backgrounds within an organization (Claretha, 2014). In the modern world, there is increased level of diversity in the workforce due to increased level of awareness and socioeconomic interactions among people. Therefore, organizations have become multicultural places which require effective communication to ensure organizational success. That is, in the modern global community, the workplaces in various organizations have become more culturally diverse (Claretha, 2014). This has had serious impact on the personal and professional relationships among employees depending on the communication model that is established in an organization. In addition, due to the increased level of competitiveness in the business environment, organizations have been forced to establish suitable framework to effectively manage human diversity. This paper will analyze the concept of workforce diversity and organizational communication and determine its benefits and possible disadvantages in relation to business success.
Diversity in the work place has generally been thought of as purely an employment equity issue. However, diversity is coming to be recognized as an asset which can, like any other asset that is well managed, contribute to the bottom line. Diversity is growing almost as quickly as the number of software vendors at an accounting convention (Talbot-Allen, 1995, p. 3)
Additionally, diversity in the classroom and at work administers greater innovation and productivity, as each individual’s background brings unique skills and traits developed from their
Businesses that promote diversity in today's global marketplace are better able to attract and retain the best talent. Employing a diverse workforce allows a company to utilize the potential within the job market to its fullest and contributes to overall economic growth and prosperity. Differences among co-workers should not divide a workplace. Rather, differences among co-workers should be used to foster creativity and innovation, thereby driving profitability and business success.
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.
Brett, J., Behfar, K. & Kern, M. (2006) ‘Managing multicultural teams’, Harvard Business Review, 84 (11), pp.84-91, Business Source Premier [online].
For the purpose of this paper, I will define what the term Diversity means, and then I will concentrate on the diversity as a result of geographic origin or ethnic diversity. I will look at how ethnic diversity is managed generally and then how my employer, deals with the diverse ethnic groups in its organization and what it needs to improve on.
Diversity in the workplace is important for employees because it manifests itself in building a great reputation for the company, leading to increased profitability and opportunities for workers. Making sure all members, students, parents and guarding’s are welcomed at all times in a well-mannered environment Workplace diversity is important within the organization as well as outside ensuring all different are put aside and everyone can come together and work well as a great team.
Research by (Kirton & Greene, 2000) and (Kossek & Lobel 1996) has indicated that the diversity architype evolved because it was professed to be less intimidating and controversial than favorable action which is driven by the concepts in the equality of opportunity. Cox and Blake (1991) classify the following arguments for managing cultural diversity to achieve competitive advantage:- 1. What is the difference between a.. Cost-reducing turnover and absence. 2. What is the difference between a.. Resource acquisition - this is drawing in the best employees as the employment pool shrinks and fluctuates.
Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...
Globalization and technology advancement bring the world closer and closer. People no longer live in isolated environment. They interact and exchange value, knowledge, background, culture and way of thinking. Looking at business perspective, competition become more dynamic than ever before. They need to have creative ideas in order to satisfy the high demand of customers. Diversity in organization is a key to solve this common issue. This is why most multinational corporation is more successful in term of doing business than local ones. Research proves that having a variety of background of employees is a key to sustainable competitive advantage.
The researcher believes, in this fast-changing era, any kind of company or organization should be able to improve the quality of workplace diversity by having some important main factor to boost the new paradigm of a diverse workplace, such as:
The importance of diversity in the workplace that it can aid in a competitive framework