Cultural Diversity: A Lesson for Managers - Essay Example

& a) A cross-cultural team is a collection of people from different ethnical, racial and cultural backgrounds working together. Working in a cross-cultural team is one really challenging thing at the work place because people tend to differ in values and beliefs. Pluralism should be accepted (Parker, 2013). People need to accept they all can’t be the same and the differences they have are as a result of growing in different backgrounds that are unique in culture and cultural beliefs. The problem arises when a person feels that their culture is the most superior and that anything else that other people believe in is out of norm. There are, for instance, societies that practice circumcision of males as a way of graduating them into adulthood. On the other hand, there are communities that do not have that kind of practice. When these two categories of people belong in the same team at the workplace and there happens to be acrimony between them, the circumcised person would most likely use unwelcome words on the uncircumcised one to suggest that they are not man enough because they are not circumcised. Cultural clashes can be real horrible experiences at the workplace (Parker, 2013). Supervisors at work have over the years abused the employees working under them only because the employees do not subscribe to their way of thinking. One thing that leads to differences in thinking are the cultural indoctrinations where one believes that everybody else should believe in the things that they believe in (Parker, 2014). A supervisor will tend to frustrate workers that view things differently. They could end up recommending them for sack or demotion and give vague reasons for that while deep inside, they know that the hate they have for such individuals emanates from differences in culture and, in some cases, religion. Those are very common scenarios. Managers of cross-cultural teams always have a lot to do in terms of creating cohesion among employees drawn from sundry cultural backgrounds. The most important thing for such managers is to try as much as they can to inculcate workplace values and ethics that will ensure that cultural diversity is not a source of conflict and disrespect. b) Ethno-cultural conflict within the international classroom is a topic that requires a lot of research. There is bound to be fierce conflicts in a class containing people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers and school heads have the duty to ensure that such conflicts do not hamper the learning process and try as much as possible to talk to the learners with a view to making them understand that the world wouldn’t be same if we were all similar. Diversity completes us as a people; it should never be a cause for division and conflict. The biggest lesson one draws from this research topic is that the classroom is one of the places where a learner, through their teachers and institutional values, have the opportunity to start thinking outside what is perceived to be ‘normal’ in their culture and embracing diversity. It is one of the sure points of making a learner understand that diversity decorates the world. If such values are not inculcated in an international class early enough, then one graduates more culturally charged than they were when they got admitted. The only injustice that can happen in an international school is to have teachers who fuel cultural conflicts rather than use their influential positions as teachers to unite students despite the cultural differences. Teachers should never be cultural extremists if they are to create conducive learning environments where all students bond irrespective of their religious and cultural backgrounds. A good education encourages inclusivity so that students graduating get to understand they will mostly meet people from different races and culture at their future workplaces. Working in harmony with people from cultures different from one’s own is an opportunity to learn even more, because understanding people as they are makes one know things about them that would help when there is an opportunity to manage them. That is one way of getting the best out of oneself and out of others (Vasta, 2007). c) As a future manager, it is important for a person to draw lessons from what it feels like working in cross-cultural teams and how cultural conflicts play out in international classrooms. A future manager needs to be able to understand the effects of uncontrolled and unfettered cultural conflicts have on delivery. If people continually bicker and have cultural and racial prejudices, they cannot be a bonded team with a common mission. Workplaces have missions and visions along which employees should unite. Unity among employees is important because it helps to achieve the goals sets by their employers. Managers have a duty of making sure that emotions along culture and religion do not feature at work or even outside work among the employees. A manager, being a reference position, influences attitudes of employees towards each other. He could unite the employees or divide them (Yuvan & Anthias, 2005). Unity among employees makes easy the work of a manager because there are no conflicts. Managers spend too much time resolving conflicts and in ensuring that whatever conflicts there maybe do not interfere in the output or attainment of organizational goals. It can be tiring to have to follow everybody around as a way of making sure that they are working and not bickering around. A united team is a disciplined team that works under no pressure or strict/close supervision. Bonding sessions should be scheduled once in a while to enhance cohesion among workers. Bonding sessions help to iron out any conflicts among workers. Workplace cultural events should also be used as a way of making people appreciate the cultures of their work colleagues. As a manager, one is in a position that helps to keep the sight of the employees on the organizational goals and working ethics. If as a manager, one is able to divert the attention of workers from their cultural differences (which would be the source of conflicts), and make them focus on the goals of the organization, there will be efficiency in the manner that workers perform. References Parker, C. (2013). Cultural immersion: Using ethnography, with criticality, to study peace- building dialogue pedagogies with diverse students. Paper presented at 34th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum , University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Parker, C. (2014). Conflict resolution practices in diverse contexts: Exploring interdisciplinary professionals’ experiences with conflict and diversity. Paper presented at Peace Education SIG, American Educational Research Association (AERA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Parker, C. (2014). Religion, identity, and education: Opening spaces for dialogue about religious diversity in diverse public school classrooms. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vasta, E., ‘From ethnic minorities to ethnic majority policy? Multiculturalism and the shift to assimilationism in the Netherlands’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2007, 30, 5, 713-741 Yuval Davis, N. and Anthias, F. (2005). Racialised Boundaries: Race, Nation, Gender, Colour and Class and the Anti-Racist Struggle. London: Routledge Zagorin, Perez. How the Idea of Religious Toleration came to the West. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005 Zapata-Barrero R. ‘Managing diversity in Spanish Society: a practical approach’. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2010, 31(4), 383-402 Read More