Culturally Diversed Workforce - Research Paper Example

Name: Instructor’s Name: Course: University: Introduction Most of the businesses and companies in the United States of America proclaim to be equal opportunity employers – simply meaning that they would like to provide the same kind of opportunities to every capable employee and the company will not discriminate against any employee because of his\her race, ethnicity, cultural background or nationality. However, the concept of equal opportunities as a way to prevent discrimination was found ineffective in the Untied States by the early 1990s. Diversity was an effective alternative, many felt, to counter the problems rising out of equal opportunity, which secluded the minorities as homogenous groups and resulted in discrimination in anyway. Researchers world over found that culturally diverse teams could contribute better to the growth of an organization, since the company would have the combined strengths of a workforce that represented various groups. The research explores the advantages and drawbacks of a culturally diverse workforce in an organization and sets to find out how small businesses are economically impacted from encouraging diverse teams in their staff. This paper looks at how organizations have taken diversity as a business strategy to form public opinion and boost the brand image by promoting diverse workforces in their offices. Since the 1990s management gurus and the business press have claimed that workforce diversity brings real business benefits and that organizations must embrace diversity in order to succeed in a competitive market (CIPD,2006). In a workplace environment, an acceptance of diversity is very important for the successful functioning of businesses and offices. Managing diversity in a work environment means inclusive work strategies, an acceptance and appreciation of differences, and a growth process where each employee has scope for developing his\her talents and progressing individually as well as contributing to the growth of the organization. Many organizations who have adopted constructive diversity policies in their workforces have found to their cost that it is often not an easy path to success. But the fact remains that corporate organizations in the United States are eager to represent and cater to all sections of people who make up the population of the nation. When the 2000 census showed that the Hispanics made up of 13% of America’s population and overtook African Americans as the largest minority group, many customer service companies and corporate organizations in the country responded by introducing Spanish to their workforce, since many Hispanics are not as comfortable with English as their African American or Asian American counterparts. Other organizations helped Spanish-speaking employees improve their English language through various training programs and interactive sessions. Diversity in a workforce has many advantages to it. In a diverse environment, an organization has the benefit of drawing from the varied individual talents and strengths of people coming from different and unique backgrounds and with their specific set of skills. In customer service organizations, a diverse workforce would ensure that the needs of a diverse customer group is better understood and met; communication with potential and existing customers can also be improved. A representative workforce will also help in boosting the organization’s image as an equal opportunity employer and a committed one at that. Small business can progress economically by maintaining a culturally diverse workforce or teams, since they have the potential to reach a wider and representative audience with information about new products and services, increase their shares in the market and open up new marketing bases. But encouraging a diverse workforce in an office is not always a cakewalk. It is the gateway to many conflicts and problems that can seriously harm the working environment and ultimately affect the productivity of the employees. The employer has to contend with the different prejudices of the employees, varied view points and resulting arguments, which often deem solutions to problems almost impossible. Employee interaction is the ultimate loser when organizations encourage diversity and fail to manage it properly. Due to the difference in the levels of understanding and perception in the employees, internal communication becomes unsatisfactory, thus resulting in increased management costs for conflict resolution. What is clear is that different kinds of diversity can impact on organizations in different ways in different contexts and at different times and that traditional ways of managing people and businesses may not be appropriate if organizations want to gain benefits. The challenges to organizations in managing diversity are great and will provide rich opportunities (CIPD, 2006). Literature Review Though the United States is becoming more heterogeneous by the day, the industry is not easily accepting it and diversity is met with stiff resistance in many work places and business environments. But it is a fact that diversity is here to stay; it’s not going to disappear. And workplaces can be the primary areas where social change begins (www.sba.gov). The research is discussing four important aspects of diversity in workplaces and the need for a culturally diverse workforce in organizations. The first part of the research explores how different organizations have used diversity as a business strategy to further their prospects .The next part of the research deals with the benefits and drawbacks that different organizations have faced and the impact of them in a culturally diverse organizations. The third part of the research evaluates the various methods used to create and retain a healthy and attractive work environment that sustains a culturally diverse workforce. The final part of the research is on the economic impact, which is definitely positive, of the diversity in small businesses. Dibble (2001) says that early efforts for encouraging multi-racial workforces in companies met with mixed responses. Companies forcefully recruited diverse workforces and compelled their existing employees to adapt through educational programming. Actually, this led to opposite results than desired; it fostered resentment towards the employer and new employees, instead of spreading good will. (Dibble, 2001). Organizations that adopt multicultural workforces have found it to their advantage that such workforces are beneficial to a large extent. The only problem faced by such organizations is the lack of cooperation between employees who come from different backgrounds. Researches have revealed that cultural diversity policies help organizations attract and maintain the best available talent in a particular industry, make it more flexible and enjoy a host of other benefits like gaining more market shares, reducing costs, improving quality and encouraging social responsibility (Thomas & Ely, 1996;). Many researchers have studied the impact of diversity in workplaces and unlike even a decade ago, the literature available on the subject today is vast. Just a mark of how much importance social scientists and corporate analysts have given to the aspect of diversity in organizations. American management literature by many famous authors like Jackson, Cox etc advocate the need for a culturally diverse workforce. But Thomas and Ely (2001) says that though certain types of diversity in a workforce prove beneficial, racial and gender diversity has both positive and negative outcomes depending on the conditions in which a diverse workforce functions. But scholars till date have only speculated on these conditions that moderate the outcomes, and this has resulted in managers and consultants relying mostly on their own common sense while dealing with problems related to diversity in workforces (Thomas and Ely, 2001). It is clear that diversity in workplaces has its own advantages and disadvantages, but more or less contributes to the economic growth and organizational progress of a business enterprise. The following statement shows the problems arising out of ignoring diversity or rejecting it. The research seeks to explore how diversity can be deployed as a business strategy for economic benefits of corporate organizations; many companies use diversity as a strategy to further their interests and expand their businesses. Businesses operate in an ever-changing market, and those that embed race equality policies within business strategies can gain a competitive advantage over firms that have poor or non existent diversity practices (Commission for Racial Equality, 2006). If minorities and women have risen up the ladder in business environments, the reasons for this are many. The marketplace is global now and a company’s awareness about cultural distinctions and sensitivity on this can make or break a company in the market. So, a culturally diverse workforce can help serve a culturally diverse clientele. Businesses have taken to diversity because they have found it to produce better customer satisfaction, especially when the clientele of a business is as culturally diverse as the workforce employed. Diversity, as seen in the above example, becomes very effective as a marketing strategy, especially in a global village, where companies are opening up offices in international locations and catering to a wide range of clients. Actually, the ability of a company to cater to different needs simultaneously may well make or break the business. The next step in the research is to study the benefits resulting from a culturally diverse workforce and compare it with the negatives of the policy. A logical analysis of the advantages and disadvantages can help in recommending effective strategies for managing such a diverse workforce in different environments. Researchers have gone into the pros and cons of adopting a diverse workforce to find out why equal opportunities sometimes fail and how diversity should succeed in such cases. Very often, people believe fair treatment is the same treatment, but it is important to concede that same treatment will produce disastrous results in many instances; due to the simple fact that people are basically different. What then are the advantages and disadvantages of a diverse workforce? In modern times of organizations becoming more complex and facing problems of greater difficulty, centrally directed management of expert resources may not be an optimal approach to problem solving. For organizations to take advantage of increased performance from diversity, in addition to a skilled and diverse workforce, it is also necessary to encourage the expression of diverse views and to enable mechanisms for the exchange and processing of these views. The implications for all organizations is to create a work environment in which all employees are willing and able to contribute their knowledge and experience to solving the problems facing these organizations (Johnson, 1999). It is becoming increasingly vital to have a broad outlook of market potential and have representative clientele in order to run successful businesses. By having a broadly representative workforce, your authority can help to make sure that all sections of the community see real improvements in the standard of the service they receive. A public organisation that reflects its customers will be in touch with those customers. This will make them more likely to deliver the right services.  Discrimination and prejudice get in the way – preventing organisations from achieving the business advantage that a diverse workforce can bring (Improvement Network, 2006). This view of diversity is adopted on the basis that internally, a culturally diverse workforce can contribute more effectively than a homogenous group. As the old saying goes, ‘two heads put together are better than one’. The following statement is a substantiation of the fact that a healthy, but diverse environment can be a positive factor to work progress. Furthermore, higher system performance and robustness occurs by the simple combination of the experiences of individuals, even though each individual solves a problem from a limited perspective. Unlike the selectionist view of diversity in natural systems, ….even in the absence of direct competition between and the consequencial selection of individuals, a higher system performance can be achieved with an alternative mechanism: the non-competitive combination of information from a diversity of individuals (Johnshon, 1999). Small business organizations have grappled with the problem of attracting and retaining a culturally diverse workforce. The provision of training and education in managing and valuing diversity is an aspect of organizational diversity strategy (D’Netto, Smith and Pinto, 2000). Some of the methods successfully employed by organizations include training and awareness programs on diversity; such programs help in increasing the employees’ awareness on minority issues like ‘stereotyping and cross-cultural insensitivity’. Many small businesses also use the legal points on diversity to ensure that their workforce remains diverse and control discriminatory behavior from their employees. In order to attract a diverse workforce, such organizations also make it a point to stress and publicize their diversity policies in the promotional and recruitment material. Many organizations employ diversity managers and establish a methodical system by which the impact of diversity and the constant needs for change can be monitored. The needs are evaluated on the basis of criteria like ‘reaction, learning, behavior and results’. But culturally diverse workforces are no easy to maintain and it takes a lot of effort to get such a group to function effectively, as the following statement points out. In many organizations, diversity can produce negative dynamics such as ethnocentrism, stereotyping and cultural clashes. These negative dynamics can in turn combine with imbalanced power structures to create work disadvantages for women and minorities. In traditional, assimilationist-oriented organizations, cultural differences between majority and minority group members create barriers to full participation of minority members (White). Due to power imbalances, stereotypes will affect members of culture minority groups more than majority groups. Stereotype is a factor in lower acceptance of out-group members as leaders, job segregation based on identity group, and differences in both hiring and performance ratings between majority and minority group members (Buono & Kamm, 1983). Individuals from minority subgroups also face obstacles from ethnocentrism within an organization’s culture. Ethnocentricity is the inclination for majority-group members to view their own group as the center of the universe, to interpret minority out groups from the perspective of the majority group and to evaluate beliefs, behaviors and values of one’s own majority group more positively than out groups (Shimp & Sharma, 1987). The potential for intergroup conflict is greater in culturally diverse workgroups than in culturally homogeneous workgroups. When there is tension between the goals or concerns of one party and those of another, intergroup conflict increases. For example, conflict results when majority group members see an incident of racioethnic injustice as "isolated," while minorities see the single event as part of a pattern of oppression that is imbedded in the social system (White). The next step of the research is to analyze how effectively different methods have been adopted to encourage cultural diversity in workforces. Current diversity best practices research fails to establish clear standards for success; correlate results with bottom-line outcomes; collect data from all levels of organizations; and measure the impact of different corporate cultures on success. Rather than depend on the questionable success of others, those charged with the challenging task of developing a corporate diversity program should consider and learn from the painful failures of others (Frost, 2001). De’Campo (2002) talks about four steps to implementing diversity in a workplace, especially in staffing strategies. These involve securing company’s leadership commitment, educating and training employees and managers and equipping them to participate in diversity initiatives of the organization, designing diversity processes and planning it to perfection. How effective can such strategies be? The United States Office of Personnel Management lays down criteria for effective implementation of diversity training practices in the country. Diversity processes and training should be effective and well suited for a particular organization’s work culture and adapted to the needs of the intended audience. It should also take into consideration the kind of diversity issues that any particular organization has to deal with and these in a planned manner (www.opm.gov). Apart from big corporate organizations, small businesses also benefit from having a diverse workforce. The next part of the research explores the economic impact of diversity on small businesses. Smaller firms can establish diversity better in their workforces and manage it successfully, because they are not functioning in a bureaucratic set up, thus making it easier for them to adopt changes in their system (www.sba.gov). Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have special advantages of having a diverse work culture, compared to the big business enterprises; especially small businesses that cater to an international clientele. Many SMEs are unable to afford expensive cross-cultural training programs or consultants to aid their internationalisation processes, which makes the efficient use of culturally diverse employees particularly important (Diversity Australia). The external perspective is all about how to make the economic impact of diversity positive and benefit from it, where as internally, small businesses can look at a healthy, mutually constructive diverse work culture. Conclusion Diversity is there to stay, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world. Organizations and businesses might as well make the most out of it; they definitely stand to gain from employing a representative work force. It helps them to manage culturally-complex environments, boosts their image as an equal opportunity employer as well as stretch their markets to minority communities as well as non-represented sections of the society. In the United States, various federal agencies have adopted diversity as part of their staffing strategies. They have started training programs and adopted a variety of tools for the inclusion and maintaining of a highly vibrant and constructive diversity in the workforce. Different private organizations have also taken the same path and enjoy the fruits of their labor in terms of extended economic gains, better positions in the share market and a large clientele. The research analyses the different methods used by companies in adopting and maintaining diversity in their employee community and suggests scope for improvement and rectification of current policies, whenever needed, in different strategies. References Buono, A.F. & Kamm, J.B. (1983). "Marginality and the Organizational Socialization of Female Managers." Human Relations, 36, 12, 1125-1140. De’Campo, M H (2002). A ‘Colorful’ Approach to a More Colorful Workforce. Retrieved December 7, 2006 from http://www.ere.net/articles/db/F6B3A4D43F9741DAAA11425C98828E7D.asp Dibble, D. (2001). Diversity 101: The Changing Face of Business. Texas Magazine. Retrieved December 5, 2006 from http://utopia.utexas.edu/articles/texas/diversity.html?sec=business&sub=management Ely, R. J. and Thomas, D A. (2001). Cultural Diversity at Work: Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly, Volume 46, 2001 Retrieved December 5, 2006 from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001043807&er=deny Frost, D D. (2001). Diversity Worst Practises. American Corporate Counsel Association Retrieved December 6, 2006 from http://www.work911.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=2554 Johnshon, N L. (1999). The Science of Social Diversity. Retrieved December 6, 2006 from http://ishi.lanl.gov/sciencediversity.html Shimp, T.A., & Sharma, S. (1987). "Consumer Ethnocentrism: Construction and Validation of the CETSCALE." Journal of Marketing Research. 24, 3, 280-289. White, D R. Managing the Diverse Organization: The Imperative for a New Multicultural Paradigm Retrieved December 6, 2006 from http://www.pamij.com/99_4_4_white.html The Business Case for a Diversity Management: an Introduction. Diversity Australia Retrieved December 7, 2006 from http://www.diversityaustralia.gov.au/benefits/business_case_intro_06.htm#ibc7.0 (2006). Employing all kinds of people- managing a diverse workforce. Improvement Network Retrieved December 6, 2006 from http://www.improvementnetwork.gov.uk/imp/core/page.do?pageId=10912 (2006). Guide to Managing Human Resources. Office of Human Resources, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved December 5, 2006 from http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guide/diversity.htm (2006). The Economic Case for Racial Equality. Commission for Racial Equality Retrieved December 5, 2006 from http://www.cre.gov.uk/gdpract/wwb_economiccase.html Read More