Cultural Diversity for Organizations - Assignment Example

Introduction Globalization has led many organizations to become increasingly diverse in terms of race, gender, nationality, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Cultural diversity refers to the representation of individuals from different group affiliations within one organization. These individuals have different values, attitudes and norms, which in turn have the potential to influence the performance of an organization. The diversity could mean potential benefits for the organization including greater creativity, better decision making, innovation and successful marketing to various kinds of customers. However, it could also cost the organization due to high turnover, communication breakdowns and interpersonal conflicts. These differences determine work attitude and ultimately the success of the organization. This study examines two theories that explain how this cultural diversity presents challenges to managers. It also entails the ways in which managers can overcome the differences and instead use it to grow the organization. The integrated threat theory The integrated threat theory emphasizes on feelings of fear or threat as the leading reason why managers face challenges when working in a diverse environment. Feelings of threat or fear are closely linked to communication breakdown in an organization. According to this theory, feelings of threats are caused by four conditions including prior conflict history, knowledge gap or ignorance, status and contact. Intergroup conflict history is the main cause of conflicts in a culturally diverse working environment. Past intergroup conflicts present a backdrop on how two groups will interact today. The more stretched and damaging the past conflict is the more negative perceived prejudices and threats attitudes will exist between the two interacting groups (Guilherme, Méndez, & Glaser 2010). Secondly, ignorance or intergroup knowledge gap refers to how little people know about each other or how much they think they know about another group based on stereotypes. As a result, a hostile moment leads one group to perceive the other group as a threat. Thirdly, the type and frequency of contact between two culturally different groups contributes to feelings of trust or mistrust, security or insecurity and familiarity or unfamiliarity. If they exhibit a personalized and positive the contact, they will see beyond their differences. However, if contact is at surface level and negative, then negative prejudices and stereotypes will be used to justify the situation (Guilherme, Méndez, & Glaser 2010). Fourth, status refers to both individual and institutional power dominance. At the institutional level, members of dominant group are likely to be perceived as controlling in the economic, political and media scene. The individual level refers to how the high status group views the lower status group. Often, the high status group wants to reinforce its position in society and worry about hostility and competition from the lower status group. The lower-status group on the other hand, resent the positions and power resources amassed by the dominant group. This leads to subjectively perceived threats with one group anticipating negative consequences like being exploited or feeling incompetent (Guilherme, Méndez, & Glaser 2010). The conflict face-negotiation theory Challenges of working in a culturally diverse environment are caused by various face-saving and face-losing behaviors. Face refers to how people want to be seen by the society in an international or relational setting. Face loss occurs when one’s identity is being directly or indirectly ignored or challenged and occurs at the individual or group level. Repeated face loss can lead to explosive interpersonal conflicts. Developers of this theory assume that people, regardless of their culture want to maintain or negotiate face during all communication situations. However, there are differences in how people attempt to do this due to different cultural backgrounds (Guilherme, Méndez, & Glaser 2010). People from different cultural backgrounds have different priorities and ideas regarding saving face. The theory particularly pays close attention to the different viewpoints of members from individualistic and collective cultures. Collectivist cultures emphasize on the collective and try to avoid things that could damage the group. This means that they will avoid conflict and when unavoidable they will allow the other person to save face. Further, saving face for the group comes first while individual face-saving comes second. In contrast, individualistic cultures emphasize on the individual, and prefer that others lose face to save theirs. To the individualistic culture, avoiding a conflict leads to face-loss and the group’s face comes second to the individual (Kristin 2006). Overcoming multicultural issues The top management plays a significant role in making diversity in an organization a success. The leader should demonstrate commitment by receiving diversity training, which addresses stereotypes, myths and the real cultural differences. The C.E.O should also receive training on organizational issues that prevent full contribution of the employees. Top executives have to understand what it means to be a minority. They cannot delegate this role to the affirmative action or equal opportunities administrators. They have to take an active role in making diversity work positively for the organization (Konečná 2006). Secondly, diversity should form part of the organization’s strategic objectives. Diversity in an organization cannot succeed if it is a separate strategy. Diversity should work towards achieving the organization’s goals, not merely to fulfill its obligation to the law. In addition, diversity should not only be stressed internally but also form part of the organization’s outreach program. This will help identify the organization as a diversity leader, active in society and community issues (White1996). Thirdly, managers should be held responsible in meeting diversity goals. Rewards and performance evaluations should also be based on the manager’s ability to create and manage a diversified workforce. They must also examine compensation to ensure fairness. In addition, for an organization to be multiculturally successful, they must continuously bring in diverse workers by recruiting aggressively. The number of minorities and women must increase in its higher salary groups through mentoring, career development and executive appointing (White1996). Further, sustaining a diverse workforce needs efficient communication. Managers must provide avenues for their employees to communicate their grievances, ideas, input and feedback. The non -hierarchical organizational structure maybe more suited for effective communication. Finally, an organization must value diversity if it is to achieve multicultural success. A multicultural environment celebrates difference instead of tolerating them. Employees must understand the value of diversity in terms of moral and competitive advantages it brings to the organization. An organization and its employees must support and respect diversity by recognizing specific religious and cultural holidays or diet restrictions (White1996). Conclusion Managing diversity is a challenge to many managers in which they face numerous challenges in developing and maintaining a multicultural organization. To realize success, managers have to change their mindsets and redesign their human resource systems. This is complicated and difficult but can be achieved with commitment from the leaders and the employees. References Guilherme, M, Méndez, G and Glaser, E 2010, The intercultural dynamics of multicultural working, Multilingual Matters, Bristol. Konečná, Z 2006, Cross-Culture Management: Worker In A Multicultural Environment. Vadyba/Management , 3 (4) pp. 12-13. Kristin, BM 2006, Managing challenges in multiculural teams. Research on managing groups and teams , pp. 233-262. White, RD1996, Managing the Diverse Organization:The Imperative for a New Multicultural Paradigm, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. Read More