Diversity in the Workplace - Research Paper Example

? Diversity in the Workplace School Diversity in the workplace Introduction America is one of the countries that have increased in cultural diversity over the years at a very fast pace. Owing to the technological advancement and availability of frequent opportunities of training and education in the use of technology, America is seen by the foreigners as a land full of opportunities of personal and professional growth. America today can be considered as the melting pot of the world. Ethnic minorities in America far outnumber those in most of other countries that have a mass majority of natives. With so many opportunities in America, a lot of people come here to start a new life with a college education, to start a business, or even to escape poverty or persecution of their native land. America is viewed as a land of opportunity and that is something to be proud. This is the reason that America has a great deal of cultural diversity in comparison to other countries. “The workplace is an extremely important juncture where culturally diverse, first generation employees attempt to immerse and make the transition into the American culture” (Botbol, 2012). Cultural diversity in America has affected the environment in the workplace in many positive and some negative ways. Positive effects of cultural diversity in the workplace in America include but are not limited to variety of cultural, social, and religious perspectives, and the resulting competitive advantage for the organizations while the negative effects include interpersonal conflicts, occasional incidents of racism, and increased load of training and education of the employees on the employers. Merits More In-House Talent One of the most significant positive ways in which the cultural diversity has affected the workplace in America is by making a variety of cultural, social, and religious perspectives available to the top management that helps it make informed decisions while formulating the strategies of organizational growth and success. The fundamental element required to make a successful strategy is knowledge of the individualistic and collective demands of the consumers. Workers belonging to different cultures and religions make the top management aware of the needs of consumers belonging to their respective cultures and religions so that the top management can have a deeper insight into their needs and address them through their products. For example, Indian employees may suggest the top management to provide separate space for families in the restaurant since Indian families like to dine in privacy. On the other hand, Muslim employees can not only make the top management aware of the importance of offering Halal foods at the restaurant because of its value among the Muslim customers, but also suggest various ways in which Halal foods can be made. In addition to that, “team members with knowledge of multiple languages can be an asset in a internationally based business or in communicating with certain segments of the domestic population” (Feigenbaum, 2012). Cultural diversity provides the employers with the opportunity to use the more talented employees to train and educate the others which proves more economical as compared to outsourcing the training and educational services. The organization gets most of the knowledge in-house which saves the time, energy, and money of the business-owners. Competitive Advantage Success of an organization depends upon the popularity of its product among the potential consumers’ population. As America has become more and more culturally diversified over the years, so has its workplace and this generates a positive message to the consumers. Consumers feel like buying the product of an organization when they see their representation in the organization’s workforce in terms of similarity of culture, religion, and social values. Recruiting workers belonging to different cultures and religions has enabled the organizations to gain the trust and confidence of the culturally diverse consumers, and enhance the profitability of business. This is how American businessmen are utilizing cultural diversity in the workplace to gain competitive advantage over their contemporaries in the market. Demerits Interpersonal Conflicts While cultural diversity offers the American organizations innumerable benefits, some disadvantages are inevitable. The most significant disadvantage of cultural diversity in the workplace is increased likelihood of occurrence of conflicts based on the differences of cultural, social, political, and religious values and beliefs of the employees that are required to work as a team in the organization. There are both internal and external factors that can cause such issues to arise. Internal factors that may contribute to the development of interpersonal conflicts in the workplace include but are not limited to rough discussions between employees on very sensitive matters like religion, politics, and personal life. “Unlike social circles, workplace relationships are for better or worse, imposed upon us. You meet your team members and bosses at random without your approval, opinion or choice” (Botbol, 2012). Since there is a great deal of difference between the cultures of employees belonging to different countries, one employee may have frequent opportunities to criticize another. Many but not all employees are careful enough to avoid this practice, thus becoming the cause of conflict in the workplace. External factors that contribute to interpersonal conflicts in the workplace are political changes, wars, genocides, and injustice in the society for the people belonging to a particular community. Particularly for the American organizations, external factors can be a very important cause of interpersonal conflicts in the workplace since America has engaged itself in wars in different parts of the world for a long time and specially with the start of the 21st century. Conflicts in the workplace arising due to the cultural diversity of the employees are very complicated and hard to manage. Occasionally, an employee belonging to a certain culture or religion may be exposed to racism in the culturally diverse workplace. “Ignoring cultural diversity groups could have negative consequences when using such groups to further the development of organizations around the globe” (D’Almeida, 2007, p. 1). In order to solve these problems, the top management needs to constantly monitor the discipline in the workplace and have a strong system of rewards and penalties to encourage the display of good behavior and discourage the display of bad behavior by the employees at the same time. Most organizations have a Code of Ethics that clearly identifies behaviors that the organization considers intolerable, so that the employees displaying them despite knowing that they are prohibited have to face liabilities. Burden of Training and Education on the Employers Last but not the least, “employers [in the culturally diverse workplace] may find that their immigrant hires have cultural and language gaps that require overcoming” (Feigenbaum, 2012). Employees with incompetence in spoken English, and lack of sufficient skills to operate the advanced technology can be easily located in the American workplace. Many American employers offer them jobs because they charge them lesser for the same service that an American employee would have done at a higher rate. However, in order to enable these employees to optimize on their potential in the workplace, it is imperative that the employers invest in their training and development so that the employees can communicate and operate effectively in the workplace. There are certain norms that are considered ethical in certain cultures and religions while they are considered unethical in others. For example, shaking hands while greeting is a good norm in the American culture irrespective of gender difference of the individuals doing it, but a Muslim woman may not feel comfortable shaking hands with a male employee even if he a Muslim. “[D]iversity also entails consideration for different genders, individuals with physical and mental conditions, sexual preferences and dedication to spiritual traditions” (D’Almeida, 2007, p. 5). Workers need to be educated on the behaviors that are considered unethical in other cultures so that they may avoid them in the workplace. Conclusion Concluding, cultural diversity in the workplace is an obvious outcome of frequent migration of people from the underdeveloped and developed countries to America in large numbers in search of better opportunities of education and employment. Although cultural diversity is perceived by some as a threat to the indigenous values of the American society, yet it brings numerous opportunities for the American organizations and some risks as well. Merits of cultural diversity in the workplace include increase in the in-house talent, availability of more knowledge and ideas concerning different cultures and religions, and increased competitive advantage through representation of a variety of cultures in the workforce while demerits of cultural diversity in the workplace include increased likelihood of occurrence of interpersonal conflicts, incidents of racism, and increased burden of training and education of foreign employees on the employers so that their skills and competencies can be customized to the needs of the organization. However, management of these effects of cultural diversity in the workplace so that its opportunities for the organizations are maximized and the risks are minimized fundamentally depends upon the quality of leadership. With good leadership, well-thought strategies, and good management, cultural diversity can be utilized as a means of achieving competitive advantage and maximizing the profitability of business. References: Botbol, I. (2012). How Cultural Diversity Affects Workplace Behavior. Hispanic Network Magazine. Retrieved from http://hnmagazine.com/article/how-cultural-diversity-affects-workplace-behavior. D’Almeida, C. M. (2007). The Effects of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. Capella University. Feigenbaum, E. (2012). About Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/cultural-diversity-workplace-3037.html. Read More