Cultural Competence and Diversity - Research Paper Example

? Cultural Competence and Diversity Module Module no: The present paper aims to explore the cultural competence observed by the professionals in accordance with the different cultural traits prevailing in the society. The paper also discusses the patterns of behavior adopted by different communities and groups while entering into interaction within their social environment. The paper describes how majority and minority groups act, react and survive within the cultural context in accordance to the prevailing norms, values, mores, traditions, customs and conventions. The paper also throws light how minority groups are crushed and intimidated at the hands of majority groups. The attitude of professionals while dealing with the problem of bias has also been discussed in the paper. The Paper The term cultural competence simply refers to the ability of the individuals to skillfully interact with their social environment by penetrating into the culture and adopting its patterns in one way or the other without taking the prejudiced behavior into account on the basis of cultural diversity prevailing in society. It is a reality beyond suspicion that the contemporary world has witnessed tremendous alterations in the social establishment, where the people belonging to divergent racial, ethnic, religious and geographical backgrounds reside and work under one and the same environment, and render their services to the institutions, firms and organizations. The presence of different communities requires exercising strict and comprehensive tolerance towards the staff members and colleagues for surviving and growing in profession. Consequently, cultural competence demands the condemnation of the prejudiced behavior of the biased stratum of society in order to serve the people without discrimination. Cultural competence is emerging as a key factor in leadership and professional life. From police officers patrolling the streets, teachers in the classroom and doctors in hospital wards to managers, working in virtual project teams and leaders planning a strategy of international expansion and the need to recognize different attitudes and expectations is an increasingly important aspect of personal effectiveness and organizational success. (Diversity Gains, 2010) Since, every reputed organization requires and hires the services of the professionals, without which there remains no possibility of sticking to one specific race only; nor the individuals can make achievements in life while working for the companies belonging to their own community. The same is applied to the professionals while dealing with the customers and clients of the groups other than one’s own. Hence, swift climbing on the career ladder vehemently requires serving all members of society without discrimination of caste, class, clan, community, race, region, religion, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. It is particularly the case in the teaching and medical professions. Researches vehemently support the very idea that the companies and individuals having least prejudice and more broad-mindedness are far more successful in social arena in comparison to the groups that observe narrow-sightedness in their behavior while dealing the communities and groups other than that one is following. The same is the case with the societies, where the liberal societies earn sound reputation and respect in social structure and establishment by earning huge amount of profit because of the combined efforts made by the people belonging to diversified groups and cultural backgrounds. On the contrary, the societies relying upon one specific group start lagging far behind than others in the race of progress and prosperity. There was a time when the US society had racially segregated schools, where the blacks and white teachers used to teach the students belonging to their community. Somehow, the second half of twentieth century introduced several reforms in the US society; abolishing of the segregated schools was also an imperative step towards this direction. However, in these combined educational institutions, an overwhelming majority of the teaching staff consisted of the white population. Consequently, the teachers belonging to the white population looked down upon the blacks. Even the water coolers, information windows and bathrooms were separate for the black students. The black students had to make very hard efforts in obtaining good grades and marks in studies; they also lost positions in the playground because of their degradation at the hands of the white coaches. It created feelings of hatred in the minds of the black students against the white population, which gave birth to several reactionary movements like Harlem movements and others. “Racist institutions are controlled by white teachers, who resist the access of non-white to power and privilege.” (Fredrickson, 1981: 240) However, the situation took a drastic change with the passage of time, where the teachers have acknowledged their responsibilities in a better way. They have realized their professional obligations as well as the very reality that the prejudiced behavior applied by the teachers in the classroom would certainly affect the relations between the races in their professional life in society. Tettegah (1996) supported the very notion that the teacher’s prejudiced behavior towards the minority races increase the level of hatred and intensity of conflict in society. It not only accelerated the pace of disliking between the races, but also stops the progress and growth of the prejudiced teachers. Several studies suggest that white teachers who have explored their own racial identity are more culturally competent— that is, their attitudes and behaviors toward diversity are more constructive after such an exploration (McAllister & Irvine, 2000). Corporate sector also experiences the prejudiced attitude towards ethno-racial groups. The local companies display more bias towards the external ethnic groups in the recruitment, placement and promotion procedures. However, they forget the very reality that the prejudice against one specific group while recruiting the personnel may eclipse the pace of productivity by depriving the organizations of the talented individuals. Thus, if a black candidate has obtained good grades and maintains spark and skills to show extraordinary performance, so the company must hire his services as personnel instead of selecting an ordinary white. The prejudice is not confined to racial diversity. On the contrary, religious faith, gender and sexual orientation of the candidates are also taken into account by the companies during the recruitment procedure. Cultural diversity is rightly viewed as the outcome of the wide range migration of the people from third world countries to the advanced nations of the world in the pursuit of superior education, health, job, and trade prospects. Since the better and alluring standard of living forced them to settle down in these advanced states on permanent basis. Thus, settling down of the individuals from divergent communities gave birth to the idea of cultural diversity in these countries. Additionally, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are justifiably viewed as the era when the European nations incurred their time, resources and energies in launching scramble for Africa, during which they invaded on the African states and made the indigenous population as captives for taking them to the western countries as slaves. Thus, thousands of Africans turned out to be the immigrants, which also strengthened the very concept of cultural diversity in the western world. Initially, the generations of the slaves remained confined to slavery of the whites. Somehow, with the passage of time, the new generations sought education and skills, and thus adopted different professions. Though they also rendered their valuable services in teaching, health, corporate sector, transportation and several others, yet they could not win respectable place in society. The reason behind their failure to earn respect and financial stability was the extreme kind of prejudice adopted by the whites towards them. Actually it has frequently been witnessed that the white Anglo Saxon population (WASP) maintained intense feelings of hatred towards the other ethno-racial groups. It was particularly the case with the African blacks, which were aptly addressed with the insulting titles including nigger, blackish and others. “Historically, immigrants have been burdened with a disproportionate amount of blame for many of society’s problems based on false assumptions and stereotypes—immigrants take jobs away from hard working native-born Americans; drain America’s health care and educational resources; and increase our criminal rates. However, time and time again these stereotypes have proven false.” (Reeves & Johnson, 2008) Not only this that the African people were looked down upon, but also they had been deprived of the basic rights including the right to vote, sit in the buses along with the whites and enjoy basic health and education facilities. Consequently, segregation could easily be discovered in walks of life in the USA and European countries. It was partially because of the mistakes committed by the African American subjects, an overwhelming majority of which was involved in crimes, perversion and deviant behavior. Thus, they maintained least level of cultural competence in their attitude and behavior. It is therefore neither they could obtain any place in social hierarchy, nor were they in a position to participate in the political activities. Somehow, realizing their mistakes, faults and flaws and adopting the cultural competence wide opened the opportunities of success to them. Though the western societies are vehemently censured for displaying prejudice towards others, the Arabs are far more racists than the Europeans in the real sense of the term. They not only deny the right of the non-Arabs to enter into any commercial activity independently, but also the foreigners are discouraged to marry the local population Prejudice often takes the form of a stereotype, an exaggerated description applied to every person in some category; as many white people hold stereotype views of minorities. (Macionis, 2008: 366) Such type of cultural incompetence adversely damaged their reputation and the world also closed its doors for this prejudiced community of the world. Similarly, it has been found that one specific group of the Christians abhors the Jews and Muslims, and is unconditionally against the participation of these groups in any nation building activity. This class of the Christians considers the Jews and Muslims as infidels, corrupt and dishonest, which seldom display any loyalty and dedication to their work place. Such type of cultural incompetence and inability to let all communities show their abilities and display their skills may isolate the prejudiced community from the rest of the world. The same is applied to the biased Muslim sects, prejudiced of which has led them towards their ultimate deterioration. List of References Fredrickson, G. M. (1981) White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History. New York Macionis, John J. (2008) Sociology: A Global Introduction Prentice-Hall McAllister, G., & Irvine, J. J. (2000). Cross cultural competency and multicultural teacher education. Review of Educational Research, 70, 1, 3–24. Reeves, Roberts & Johnson, Jeremiah (2008) Sharing the Truth and Shattering Stereotypes about Immigrants Available at http://www.asianjournal.com/immigration/atty-robert-reeves/462-sharing-the-truth-and-shattering-stereotypes-about-immigrants.html Tettegah, Sharon (1996) The Racial Consciousness Attitudes of White Prospective Teachers and their Perceptions of the Teachability of Students from Different Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds: Findings from a California Study Journal of Negro Education Volume 65 No. 2 Diversity Gains (2010) Cultural Competence and the art of wisdom Retrieved from http://www.amazureconsulting.com/files/1/25898004/CulturalCompetenceAndTheArtofWisdom.pdf Read More