Managing Cultural Diversity in Workplace - Essay Example

? Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Managing cultural diversity in workplace: Strategies The management of cultural diversity in workplace is the key to success for an organization. The role of the human resource manager in managing diversified culture in workplace is extremely crucial. The traditional and functional roles of the management have, however, undergone radical changes over the years. The challenges to be met are of the modern types. The challenge in getting to integrate and manage a culturally diversified set of employees in an organization requires additional focus. Managing cultural diversity in workplace is one of the key objectives of the organization among other concern areas of sustaining productivity as well as quality, total quality management and customer satisfaction. The diversity in the workforce is mainly due to presence of people coming from varying set of backgrounds. They differ in their value systems, culture, beliefs, attitude and behaviour, habits and customs (Henderson, 1994). Thus to bring the entire workforce together on the same platform is extremely significant in terms of bringing them to a common tune of work. The integration of a workforce which is culturally diversified lies at the beneath of the long term success of the organization. The issues to be considered for managing people from an environment of cross-culture are training and development of the employees, organizational dynamics aimed at optimizing the performance of the global managers. The building of confidence to bring out the professionalism of manager arriving from an international scenario is important. The adaptability to the home environment is required to work in harmony with the organization policies which could be achieved through managing the cultural diversity of the workforce. The trend of growth in future is based on the expansion of domestic markets to the global platform which could be achieved through embrace of manpower from various corners of the world. Thus counselling and imparting training to the employees belonging from cross-cultural backgrounds is important to achieve the targets of the organization. In order to manage cross-cultural diversity in workplace, several strategies are applied by the organizations which form the key to success. The strategies adopted by organizations are solely based on the data collected by the organizations on the personal trends, labour segments and customer segments. The analysis of the collected data helps the management to understand about the thought process of the diversified set of employees on the developments and progress of the organization. The attitude of the workforce towards their business opportunities and growth could be analyzed from the information collected by the organizations. For international operations, a diversified set of employees in the workforce could prove to be advantageous. The alignment to the different set of cultures, understanding the needs of customers from varying cultural backgrounds and addressing those needs with the help of employees from specific cultural backgrounds help the organizations to attain expansion in the world markets and also to get a competitive advantage. The strategies for managing cultural diversity of the workforce in an organization vary with respect to the ethno-centric, region centric as well as geocentric approaches (Walton, 1994). The ethnocentric approach considers people from different ethnic backgrounds. The region-centric approach considers the members of the workforce from different regional backgrounds. The geocentric approach takes the people from all over the world into consideration for managing the diversity of people from cross-cultural backgrounds. In the present scenario of business expansions, the integration of the host with the international markets and culture is extremely important for the good interest of the organization. The attainment of cultural diversity in business operations is obvious under such situations. Thus the management of cultural diversity is also crucial in such a scenario. A diagram representing the various strategies of organizational success based on the management of cultural diversity in workplace is given below. The strategies centre on various internal tasks of the organization that includes hiring, relocation, mentoring, communication, team building, training, commitment and attainment of a common language of the organization. The organization due to situational needs would hire employees across international culture in order to support their plans for expansion. Now considering the pool of the employees, the organization would look to relocate its employees matching them to the greatest extent on the regional culture of its area of operation. The next step would be mentoring those employees with the help of expertise and experience present with the company. Inputs about the behavioural trend of the customers, value systems and beliefs, culture of the people of that region are provided to the employees. The communication language for the workforce in order to interact with the customers and other stakeholders is given due importance. An orientation towards a common language of expression with the stakeholders of the business is crucial for running the business operations in a successful manner. With the help of these initiatives, an integrated team is built by the organization. A successful adaptation by the team members to a common belief and value system helps to build a strong bond among the employees constituting the workforce. The training of the workforce is aimed at imparting knowledge on the required actionable of the workforce and develops a sense of commitment. All these strategies by the organization help to develop an integral workforce consisting of people from varied set of cultures expressing a common language which is maintained globally by the organization. Task environment forces influencing modern organizations The task environment forces that influence the strategies in modern organizations for managing the cultural diversity in workplace depends on factors at individual levels, group level and organizational level. Individualism exist in the organizations that depict lesser bonding between the network of the employees. The employees are concerned more on the individual gains than on collective gains. The employees in such a work environment are mainly concerned about their interests and the interests of their immediate family. Expansion of business operations into international geographical boundaries carry the culture of the organization and transmit the behavioural traits to other employees from different cultural backgrounds (Brislin, 2008). In such a condition, the management of the workforce to a common collective platform is important for bringing harmony in work for achievement of a common target. The force of individualism in the task environment of an organization is an influencing factor for management of diversity in the workforce. Such a force would tend to follow protestant work ethics due to which the management of diversity is extremely crucial. The exchange of idea, values and beliefs are important for attainment of integration of the workforce. The individualism is also observed at group levels and the organizational level. There would be specific groups of people that would tend to focussed on individual gains which do not fall in harmony with the other groups. Managing such a group to operate on the same lines of the organizational policy is important to attain organizational goals. At organizational level, there would differences in the areas of interest of the domestic and international operation units. This would be mainly due to the difference in the sense of ownership and difference in their beliefs and value systems. An integration of the diversified culture at organizational level would help to bring the interests of the workforce in a common platform. The power distance at organizational level is also an important factor that influences the strategies of the modern organization. The power distance is a measure of acceptance of the employees who are less powerful to the more powerful employees of the organization. The need for balance of power distance in the organization determines the strategies of the modern organization. Global environment forces influencing modern organizations The global environmental forces that influence the strategies of the modern organization are the issues of repatriation and expatriation. The expansion of the organizations in international markets brings a culturally diversified workforce into consideration. The difference in communication, language, beliefs, value systems and behaviour of the workforce from varying cultural backgrounds is an area of challenge for the organizations. The cross cultural training is imparted by the organization to bring the globally diversified workforce to communicate on the same platform. The differences in compensation in international business operations are also a point of dispute within the organization. This influences the strategies on compensation of the organization. The expenditure for relocation is included in the compensation package of the employees. This strategy helps to address the issues of expatriation and repatriation. The other factors in the global environment that determine the organizational strategies of managing the cultural diversity among the workforce are the difference in the labour market culture of different economies and the economic and legal system. The labour markets in different countries are different in terms of job culture (D'Almeida, 2007). Some markets adopt protestant ethics while some markets are liberal in their approach towards work. Thus the organization would need to collect information on the different labour market cultures and design appropriate strategies to manage the diversity of culture in the different markets. The economic system, labour laws and other business laws in the global business platform determine the strategies for different markets in international scenario. The staffing approach of the organization, response to the different economic laws, labour laws are influenced by the varied set of culture in the global environment. Linkage: Value driven management and cultural diversity in workplace The management of cultural diversity in the workplace is aimed at creating value for the organization and pave the path of its progress. The expansion of the organization in the internal markets and the management of culturally diversified work force in the global areas of operation of the organization are guided by the value driven management of the organization. The organization develops the strategies for integrating the cross-cultural workforce which is nothing but an aggregation of steps in the value chain. The various activities in the value chain involve categorization of the service delivery. The efficiency and quality of the service delivery is assessed. After a meaningful assessment, the objective and aim of the organization is rolled out. This is percolated to the employees and the workforce is then engaged into available opportunities for growth. The next step in the value driven management involves proper staffing in order to engage optimal number of employees for achieving the target. The employees are engaged with a view to maintain a cultural balance of the workforce. A culturally balance workforce helps to generate maximum output of the business function. The next value added to the business operations is maintenance of quality assurance as a part of the operational requirements. The operational staffs are given feedback on the quality of the existing output and the required set of actions for achieving the benchmark quality is suggested. The performance of the workforce is then monitored to reduce the gaps and achieve the quality assurance standards set by the organization. The value chain is completed by focussing on the profitability of the organization. This is achieved by keeping a control over the cost of operations and meeting the actual expenses and revenue earnings with the planned budget. Thus value driven management helps to attain optimal business performance by managing the cultural diversity in the workplace. Recommendation: Long term value creation through managing cultural diversity in workplace The expansion of business operation into internal markets is aimed at diversifying the business and for attainment of sustainable profits of the organization in future. Due to these activities of the organization, an environment of diversified culture is created at workplace. The culturally diversified workforce is an asset of the organizations that could be leveraged for growth of the organization in the long term. The resources of the culturally diversified workforce need to be managed in an effective manner and to be shaped as per the common needs of the organization to produce the maximum output. The people taken into the workforce are form different set of cultural backgrounds, beliefs, values systems, behaviour and attitude to life and work. The differences in value system make some part of the workforce as individual gainer with indifference towards the group policies and work culture. Collaboration between the activities of the group may lack due to non-orientation of the diversified culture to wards a common cultural system. Thus the approach of managing the cultural diversity in workplace is essential to achieve benefits in the long run. In short term, the activities of management may incur expenses of training, mentoring, etc. In the long run, the strength and adaptability of the team is developed to the home environment and culture and the workforce attains responsibility for its operations (Jackson, 1992). The sense of ownership developed through building of confidence among the diversified set of people keeps them together for a common cause. Moreover, different international markets carry different customers with different cultures. The organization also has the opportunity to employ the workers that match the specific culture of the markets and address the needs of the customers. This is worked out a providing a customized solution to the clients. Theses activities develop a brand image of the organizations and the information flow to the market helps the organization to create long term value through management of cultural diversity in workplace. The strategies adopted by the organizations are influenced by the market conditions in different economies, the prevailing labour laws and the legal system. A balancing act of the power difference in the organizations, difference in gender, culture, individual and group interests are necessary for long term value creation. The management of cultural diversity in workplace establishes a strong bond not only among the workforce but also between the employees and the management that helps to foster growth in the long term perspective. References Henderson, G. (1994). Cultural diversity in the workplace: issues and strategies. USA: Quorum Books. Brislin, R. (2008). Working with Cultural Differences: Dealing Effectively With Diversity in the Workplace. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. D'Almeida, C. M. (2007). The Effects of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. USA: ProQuest. Jackson, S. E. (1992). Diversity in the workplace: human resources initiatives. USA: Guilford Press. Walton, S. J. (1994). Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. USA: Indiana University. Read More