The Advantages of Cultural Diversity - Case Study Example

Introduction A modern definition of culture is “the shared ways in which groups of people understand and interpret the world (Fons & Charles 1997,p.3-4). The lecture on “Exploring Culture” provides insight in understanding the definitions of culture and to evaluate the process of exploring different cultures. The lecture has included the definition of culture as “the symbolic and learned non-biological aspects of human society, including language, custom and convention”. The management of multicultural groups which are becoming more and more common is a subject of much relevance. This becomes of increased importance with regard to both the complexities and the scope associated with the culturally diverse groups. The objective of this reflective diary is to express my personal reflections on the topics covered in specific lectures with reference to the additional reading on the topics and their practical application in professional scenarios. Six wide topics has been covered in the paper including “Multicultural working groups”, “The advantages of cultural diversity”, “Understanding Cultures”, “The cultural competencies in a multicultural team”, “Preparing the staff to work efficiently in multicultural environment” and “The tools for managing cultural diversity. The personal reflection of the topics as dealt by the specific modules is being done with reference to the experience I have had in managing a multicultural group and also with regard to the additional reading I have done on the topics. Multicultural working groups The extensive changes in management and economic scenarios which began in the late nineties have led to the delocalization of business entities and processes. The chances for operational expansion across the boundaries of the local level and even to an international level due to the liberalization of the economic and trade business strategies of leading countries has made the possibility of multicultural workgroups very much feasible and economic. This has resultantly opened doors for varied options offering diversity with in the working groups, routine business operations and in general the outlook of the organization. It has become extensively common to observe such cultural diversities in almost all of the globally relevant working groups. I personally have had an experience working with such a group while leading a team in China. The team I was dealing with had people from six different nations having highly diverse languages, cultures and behavioral aspects. More importantly, the approach towards the work also varies from culture to culture. However, such multicultural groups would offer diverse capacities as well which would make the team generically experts. It is this factor which prompts business entities to constitute their working team with people from varied cultures. The advantages of cultural diversity If an organization is able to manage cultural diversity with full efficacy they would be able to convert these diversities into organizational benefits. Cox and Balke (1991) has opined that multiculturalism can be directly associated with organizational success because multiculturalism can serve as a competitive edge for the concerned companies. This should be read together with the fact that the varied efficacy levels of employees from different cultures can be effectively combined to serve for the cause of the organization. The multiculturalism can aid the companies to cut costs as well. This benefit is highly utilized by modern day companies through resources like in-sourcing and outsourcing. Cox and Balke (1991) have also made the point that multicultural work groups help companies to develop a minority friendly reputation among prospective employees. As far a customer based approach is concerned multicultural work groups can help organizations to understand varied customer bases deeply with regard to the cultural attributes and can approach them accordingly. Creativity level also would increase within the working team as the team would approach a task with varied approaches and insights as the members belong to different cultural backgrounds. Kanter (1983) has confirmed this as it has been stated that creativity feeds on diversity. The decisive capacity and the problem solving ability also would be more in comparison with a team with monoculture. This fact also has been further confirmed as Nemeth (1986, 23-32) has opined that a culturally heterogonous group holds the potential to put forward alternative solutions for a particular problem. Adaptation process to the multicultural scenario also would equip organizations with the flexibility to manage external and internal environmental changes. Hooffman and Maier (1961, 401-40& have opined that proper management of diversity would help better adaptation with organizational changes. The lecture on “Implications of Culture and Cultural Diversity” has also provided critical evidences on the advantages of cultural diversity. Understanding Cultures This cultural diversity in other terms poses huge challenges in terms of managing the group towards the vision of the project. It is also necessary that as a leader one should ensure the maintenance of equal opportunities within the team. While working in China with such an acutely culturally diverse team my responsibilities as leader also faces this serious challenge. Rice (2007) has opined that valuing and managing diversity requires policies, procedures, relationships and practices that will ensure fairness and equality. My primary responsibility was to recognise the specific multicultural characteristics of the group I was dealing with. In addition to that I had to specifically identify the behaviours in mixed groups and teams. The individual interpersonal skills which are necessary for a team to be effective also were assessed. ‘To build and then lead the team’ was the clear message indicated by the nature of the multicultural team as the team members had differences in all aspects of work culture. My cross-cultural experience in both studying and working in a number of countries came handy in this situation. I worked hard to grasp the essence of each culture quickly and familiarized with everyone’s religious ethics, personalities and work style. It was quite important to amend the human resource management operations in accordance with this understanding to get across the challenges raised by the cultural diversity within the working team. While closely monitoring the team I was dealing with, I could identify the cultural competencies within the team in the following aspects. These competencies matched much with the ones as explained in the lecture on “Preparing for the Expatriate Experience”. The researches pertaining to cross cultural differences as explained by the lectures on “The Research: Hofstede and Laurent, Hall & Trompenaars” can serve as benchmark while doing similar assessments. The cultural competencies in a multicultural team Inter personal relationship As generic with most of the modern work groups, the group I was leading also had much diversity in their inter-personal relationship attitudes. Although this varied from person to person, the range of the diversity was much high with reference to the fact that the group included staff from six different countries and cultures. Christopher & Diana (1996, p75) have mentioned seven factors concerning to the human relationships including time, space, odors, frankness, intimacy of relationships, values and expression of emotions. When the team member from America would insisted on punctuality, the members from the Asian countries did not pay much importance for accurate timings. As being a Korean, I could realize the cultural association behind this behavior of the Asian team members. The factor of space was also viewed differently by different people with reference to their cultural backgrounds. When some needed to be close to their colleagues, some others preferred only a formal relationship and kept a distance. Frankness was another factor which was identified as a cause for bringing in diversity in inter-personal relationships among the staff. An interesting observation made by me was that The Americans in my team considered the Asians to be indecisive, evasive and roundabout and on the other side the Asians considered the Americans to be impolite, aggressive and harsh. This is however confirmed as a general observation as Lesikar R & Flatley M (2002,p.442) has opined that high-context cultures are more frank than low-context cultures. (Lesikar R & Flatley M 2002,p.442). There had been acute differences in the intimacy among the staff as well. In the preliminary days after my inception the factor that disturbed me the most was that the people from particular cultural groups tended to associate only within them. This tendency was also found to differ in intensity among different cultures as some limited themselves to strict social and some times economic classes and on the other side others liked to interact without any restrictions. Another major problem was that the approach towards women differed among different cultural groups in accordance with the role of the women in the respective societies. The approval of superiority and the professional relationship among superiors and subordinate also was diverse within the team. The attitude towards work also differed highly. Thus the work quality was not unified in the team. The honesty shown towards the work also depended on the cultural aspects. Much care was to be taken as far as the emotional expressions were concerned. The team with reference to the peculiarities of the cultural group responded differently to the emotional expressions as well. Language Diversity Language was one major factor which was identified as a varied element among the multicultural team. As the team was of international nature it was obvious to have a wide diversity in languages. Even though the company had English as a common language, the capacity of each cultural group to handle English differed highly. Even the usage of English involved Grammar and Syntax differences with reference to different regions. Adding to the language diversity, the same words or phrases may mean different in different cultures. Thus as a leader it became much challenging for me to manage the differences among the team with regard to their language. Diversity in Capacity and Knowledge standards As the workforce included people educated from different countries and universities of differing standards, their capacity and knowledge standards also had wide diversity. Though the intake process include standardized screening techniques, as the definition of these standards itself is different for different educational scenarios, diversities were quite evident in the team. It was quite observable that that a task in which a cultural group would be experts, would be a difficult task for people from other cultural groups. This very much depended on the social, economic, educational and the cultural setup of the communities they belong to. As a leader, it was quite challenging for me to integrate these differences in capacities into result producing cohesive team. Preparing the staff to work efficiently in multicultural environment To empower, energize and inspire the team was another key role of me as a leader. Miller & Fields (2000, 18).have explained the need of a clear leadership and organizational vision in leading multiethnic and multicultural workforce. I was clearly convinced of the necessity of the leader adapting to each individual team member as explained in the lecture on “Preparing for the Expatriate Experience”.As the team members had been away from their families and their country for over eight months, they suffered a compelling homesickness, which had a negative impact on their enthusiasm towards work. I tried to indulge them in a series of activities like volunteering for nearby orphanages .This brought in the factor of togetherness and relieved them from the pressure of being away from the near and dear ones. Excursions, picnics, concerts and activities of the kind entertained us as a team during times of pressure. Gradually, the team members energized themselves psychologically and started evolving as a cohesive team regardless of their varied cultural backgrounds. However they really needed to be empowered so as to be efficient in a multicultural scenario. The efficacy in a multicultural environment can only be ensured if the contribution of all individuals in the team as multi subject matter specialists is combined as team effort. Along with the physical labor, the multicultural team is expected to work along in the same line in the knowledge generation and innovative thought process. As a leader, I insisted myself to create an inspiring vision and lead by example. The vision was of togetherness in responsibilities and credits regardless of the cultural differences. The collaborative effort to formulate project goals, plans and to assign tasks brought in the feeling of ownership and responsibility towards the project. I ensured that the team members support each other by assigning tasks to different combinations of individuals and encouraged them to help each other. These joint efforts shaped mutual trust, united them together and eventually achieved seamless team cooperation. I was careful to keep myself working hard so that I leave an example for the team. Meanwhile, I played the back-up role, offering them support in resources, coordinating with customers and balancing the progress. Thus I could win their confidence as an effective leader. The efficacy of each employee was of no doubt. However they were to be given a healthy work environment within the multicultural system. In the context of the competitiveness of the corporate world and the demands from the customers, innovations in all realms of operations were needed. Let that of management, technology, marketing or any other business operation, innovation and operational measures with regard to the demands of the market was to be made. With relevance to diversity in the global market, the staff from across the globe can prove competent in different roles contributing effectively for the company. However this in turn demands the preparation of staff from different backgrounds to be efficient in multicultural environments. So as to make this possible, their empowerment has to be ensured. Erickson, Hamilton, Jones and Ditomassi (2006, 96-104) have opined that empowerment is the result of exposure of the human resource to situations which activates growth both personally and professionally by the deliberate efforts of team leaders. In this process of exposure and development, the manpower is trained to improve their skill and attitude. This would make substantial impact on the employee’s self realization. The basic result of staff empowerment is that it would construct a healthy, committed workforce which has a positive vision towards their responsibility (Copp, Agpaoa, Carvalho & Pfeiffer, 2004). Resultantly, empowerment would enable and inspire the employees to make autonomous decisions in professionally critical times. It would make the staff capacious and responsible for their own actions. This would mean that the supervisor would not be consulted for simple causes as the staff would be empowered to make responsible decisions. As I leader I had to take deliberate efforts to empower the elements within the multicultural working system. This has to happen because the conventional staff structure and the profile hierarchies do not usually have the space to promote empowerment in terms of cultural assimilation. The positional behaviors and the peculiarities in the mindset mine to setup healthy work environments that would encourage the employees to get empowered by their own. For this to happen, all the functional and communicative barriers among the team which hindered the process of empowerment had to be removed. The lecture on “Cultural Differences and Management Development” has dealt in detail the process involved in empowerment of multicultural groups. As a leader I had to consider the possibilities of empowerment all across the policies. This is in line with the concept that empowerment must begin along with inception. However, the minimal capacity for getting empowered will have to be ensured before inception. It is the combination of aspiring staff and ideal work environment that results in empowerment. However, as the team had has staff from all across the globe, the empowerment of the existing staff as efficient multicultural team members had to happen as a deliberate effort from the leader. I entrusted the research and development wing of the company which is based in China to come up with empowerment strategies. Further I utilized the empowerment strategies so as to make the individuals from different cultural backgrounds unite as a cohesive team. Strategies for Employee Empowerment As explained in the lecture on “Preparing for the Expatriate Experience”, any strategy for the empowerment of an employee to assimilate into the multicultural work environment must emphasise on the process of cultural adjustment. The policies of the company had to be strategic in the context of empowerment of its staff for being ready as a multicultural team member. “Sharing information, ,sharing decision making, practicing consensus decision making, developing consensus on budget, creating a common vision, developing shared beliefs, allowing employees to direct their professional growth, empowering stakeholders, understanding customer needs and developing symbols of empowerment” has been suggested by Lamperes (2004, 32-37) as strategies of human resource empowerment These strategies were amended and implemented in accordance with the scenarios which prevailed in the team. . The sharing of information with the staff of all levels on organizationally critical matters nullified the cultural differences and unified them into a unified work culture. This morally motivated them and made a feel of inclusiveness prompting them to actively involve in the developmental process. A capacity building so as to behave and work in accordance with the cultural demands of the group as a whole and specifically of each individual made massive cohesiveness within the team. Consensus in decisions and budgeting were gradually shown by the team clearly indicating signs of empowerment. A single vision makes the team cohesive in all modes of action. Shared beliefs also make similar impacts. While assuring the organizational growth, the personal growth of the staff also has to be taken care of. As I could convince the team members on the scope of being cohesive despite the cultural differences, they very well managed to develop commonly acceptable cultural attributes. Thus the preparation of the team to have universally acceptable attributes both personal and professional helped the employees amend their mode of work in an empowered way. The specific customer needs also needed to be understood properly so that the employees respond accordingly. I constituted peculiar symbols of empowerment which were unique to each of the functional attributes of the company. This in turn served as a benchmark on the common policies. As the company already have a good track record on the maintenance of ideal work environment for the employees, this process was quite easy as far as the implementation was concerned. So as to empower the staff in accordance with the culturally diverse scenario, I had to employ various tools. As suggested by the modern management researches. Over times these has been streamlined through practically evolved situations. Some of the important among them are Communication, Motivation, Performance appraisals and Training. Despite the fact that the efficacy of these tools would depend on the work environments, these tools in general are described below. The tools for managing cultural diversity Training Behavioral interventions intended to optimize the output of an employee in a culturally diverse scenario requires proper capacity building. So as to prepare the team to achieve required levels of empowerment, training and development is an essential strategy. (Utah State University, 2008). Randhall, et.al (2006, 385) has confirmed the importance of training and development and the training need has been defined as the difference between standard performance and actual performance. In other words, training and development is the process which raises the performance of an employee to the standard level. Thus any program intending training and development should provide the inputs for the optimization process. The ultimate result must be alignment of the vision to that of the organizational vision. In the case of my company, my primary responsibility was to have the team’s capacity raised to a level wherein they properly learn to respect the cultures prevalent in the work environment. This respect should further lead to a stage wherein the employee should be able to work in accordance with the common culture of the team without compromising the values of each individual’s cultural values. Education, Skills, Development, Attitudinal changes, Ethics, Decision making and problem solving skills are to be imparted by the training program so as to ensure empowerment (Ashwatappa, 2004, p.45-64). Trainings must supplement the qualities which the employee already holds to have selected for the job. It should teach him to respect his counterparts for what they are. Some of this would include capacity building on the cultural standards of different components within the team. This has been confirmed by the training needs as explained in the lecture on “Preparing for the Expatriate Experience” Education is the process of imparting theoretical concepts aligned with the skills of reasoning and judgment. An empowered multicultural worker will be prompted to take apt decisions in self governed situations. This makes education an important part of the training process. An understanding on the work ethics and related procedures would empower the team to deliver better with proper adherence to the cultural standards. A positive energy creation process should be ensured by amending the staff attitude as per the organizational requirements. The inputs termed decision making and problem solving skills helps the process of aids decision making and crisis management. I initially developed a training and development team which worked continuously with each individual in the team. The service of an external consultancy service was called for to give the team exposure to different cultural attributes. For example, the attitude of the British towards various behavioral aspects was properly extended to the staff from Asia and the process was done vice versa as well. As explained in the lecture on ‘the historical context of national culture: the ‘British’ example’, assessments were done on the historical context of each cultural group associated in the work force and the management theories which were related to this historical context. These management theories were highly used while formulating the operational policies. Special emphasis was given to avoid the cultural shock whenever an employee is initially exposed to the multicultural system. The team was educated on the latest international standards concerning to various functional requirements. This to an extent standardized the approach towards work. The consultation service was made use to have proper understanding on such standards and international values. The team was also motivated to have their attention on globally relevant ethical issues so that their mindset broadens to an international level. This made them to come out of the regionally based cultural jargons. This included trainings on latest developments in ethical energy management and alternate energy sourcing. Training all spheres of employees on the need of effective and sustainable cultural and behavioral approaches facilitated the empowerment of the employees as effective team workers in a culturally diverse scenario. Hall and Even (1965, 33-35) have confirmed the necessity of keeping the team members informed on the attitudinal differences of their colleagues. Motivation Motivation is “the process that governs choices made by persons or lower organisms among alternative forms of voluntary activity” (Vroom, 1978, 6). In the context of employee empowerment, motivation helps an employee to perform better and to be decisive in situations of crisis. Motivated employees do things in a better way. This becomes of much importance when it comes to a much culturally diverse work environment. It would be important to take optimally wise decisions at the right time to avoid conflicts and to ensure alignment with the team’s policies. Optimal actions are often catalysed by the process of empowerment. Thus in the modern day corporate scenarios as that of the multicultural team led by me, motivation becomes of importance. When the employees of my team were motivated based on the objectives of the company, they got empowered work efficiently in the culturally diverse work environment. This in turn made an ethically cultured work environment available for the employees as well. The reliability and the assurance on this system made the staff retention rate reach newer heights. Motivated staff became more aware of their responsibilities towards the organization and towards the culturally diverse team as well. Naturally a mutual respect developed within the team. The multitude of the extension process of this motivation is also important in maintaining the ethical culture of the work environment. Communication Communication plays an important role in the business scenarios as faced by me as a leader. As explained before the spread of the organization’s network across the globe made huge diversity among the staff in terms of language, culture and other behavioral aspects. In addition to this the customer base of the company which was also spread across nations made the scenario more complex. In this context communication becomes complex. Chin (2005) has studied in detail the communication complexities that may arise in such a situation. Thus the smooth functioning of such a culturally diverse workforce demanded fluency, transparency and clarity in communication. This corroborates the importance of communication in the ensuring the efficacy of a multicultural group. When the organizational matters like budget, objectives and developments are transparently communicated, the staff gets motivated and thus the end result is empowerment. This mitigates the differences that exist among the team members from different cultural backgrounds. With relevance to the communication strategies, I ensured to properly communicate the importance of respecting the values and cultures of each individual while adhering with the ethical work culture of the organization. Performance appraisals “Performance appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the individual with respect to his or her performance on the job and his or her potential for development” (Beach, 2004, 290). Thus performance appraisal becomes a tool to identify the developmental needs and the potential of a particular employee. This serves a benchmark during while developing an ethical work culture and the policies of the organization. On the other side the appraisals bring to light the merits of the employees further causing empowerment. Thus it encouraged my team members to be more dynamic. The cultural perspectives adhering with the operational outcomes of each employee was carefully assesses and modulations were made in the work procedures accordingly. Special emphasis was given towards the performance of cultural minorities. The related machineries like performance feedback and counseling would help to maintain consistency in performance. 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