Understanding Multiculturalism Within The Workforce

Humans are creatures that are vulnerable to differences in general, but in the presence of these differences, people will unknowingly gain some benefit. The following problems and opporrtunities that exist in working in a multicultural environment.

This paper covers diversity management theory and how it affected my academic experience. Diversity management is an important and rapidly growing concern in many workplaces. Managers want to insure a safe environment for their employees and increase productivity, awareness, and morale. If the employees are happy, there will be more successes within the company. People respond to positive and guiding help or advice better than discrimination and down talk from a boss. The training in place for managers deals with cultural, gender, and social diversity. By enhancing the workplace and creating a team environment, companies can unleash their potential.

As a business manager in human relations you must understand the differences in cultures. The labor force in today’s society in the United States workforce is getting more racially and ethnically diverse, as the number of women are also increasing. Companies use human resources management to gain a competitive advantage. Companies can no longer take the traditional approach of depending on white males to form the core of the workforce. In today’s society managers must look broadly to use talent wherever it could be found. Managing diversity is a huge issue in today’s society because each culture has a different way to be handled. If managers can be effective at managing diversity in different cultures, they will have an easier time

Today’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

Susan Jackson states in Diversity in the Workplace: Human Resource Initiatives that, “Surveys of business leaders confirm the perception that interest in managing diversity successfully is widespread. In a study of 645 firms, 74% of the respondents were concerned about diversity, and of these about one-third felt that diversity effected corporate strategy.” This means that the majority of organizations feel diversity is important, and see the need to take action, however; implementing the process can be more difficult. This paper will outline a human resources

It is often said that the success of a Business has to do with how well its backbone team manages it. In today’s world, most of a company’s management and backbone team is one that is composed of up of a diverse group of employees. Strong, diverse teams play a vital role, on the success of a business. Diversity is understood to be the ways people can be similar or different from each other. Some examples of diversity in the workplace include culture, race, age, and gender. A good diverse workforce group is made of distinct employees from diverse backgrounds, different age groups, and distinct gender. Cultural Diversity in the workplace is one business component that has extreme importance in an organization. More and more organizations

Workforce diversity is not a transient phenomenon; it is today's reality, and it is here to stay (Barak, 2013). A successful entity must provided a tool for cultures integration for its employees. Therefore Diversity training is important part of successful management. The most important components of an effective training diversity training are support of the organization. Training can be put out, but the company management level must also endorsed the training. The critical information that must be included in the training is respect of other differences. The attitude of the trainer can directly impact the attitude of the trainees on receptive of the information put out. If the trainees understand

Management must promote the contribution of each diverse perspective as well as to recognize and appreciate wide-ranging cultural differences. Another reason organizations are embracing is the fact that the diversity in their employees has a direct impact on the diversity of their consumers and customer base. However, there are also issues managers must contend with such as a lack of cohesiveness, interpersonal conflicts, difficulties in decision making and communication, and lastly resistant to change (Nelson, 2013, p. 53). Finally, managing and placing value on diversity in the workplace is not as much changing in company policy as it is changing mindsets and attitudes. Diversity should be a corporate value, a top priorityfor managers, and a vital objective for any organization along with becoming a foundation to the organizations strategic blueprint. Diversity does have its advantages; the benefits of diversity include attracting and retaining the best employees, as well as improved marketing efforts, superior problem solving, and enhanced flexibility within the organization along with the obvious creativity and innovation diversity brings (Nelson, 2013, p.

For organisations to attract diverse employees it requires a corporate structure supportive of varying backgrounds and tendencies, as well as the internal resources and knowledge necessary to effectively identify with a variety of cultures (Boundless, 2011). Human resource management (HR) must keenly consider and understand what motivates and attracts a diverse workplace in order to entice the suitable talent pool.

Future trends for a diverse society will become more evident. As a result, the workforce and to a greater extent, the marketplace must increase diversity. Globalization of corporations begat a global economy increasing the marketplace, and enlarging a diverse workforce. The reality is diversity will become less of a social issue and more of a business concern linked to competitive strategies. Upper management will become more involved in diversity issues because diverse workforce needs to be better utilized in order to remain competitive. Diversity training will be integrated into other types of training. Corporations will continue to explore demographic changes in our society and link them more closely to global changes.

The US is one of the most culturally heterogeneous populations in the world with a current workforce of 36% individuals from different ethnic groups such as American Indian, Arab American, Asian American, Afro American and Latino American. In my opinion, globalization has greatly affected the world not only social, economical, but also human interactions. The constant change promotes diversity within companies where the importance of diversity management is extremely essential to progress. I also believe that it is not possible to have too much diversity in the workplace due to the advantages that group diversity promotes within a company’s organizational culture (Carr-Ruffino, Daniels, Radebaugh, & Sullivan, 2013).

In today’s society, with various changes occurring in demographics because of globaliza- tion it is important to focus on a more diverse workplace. Managing a more diverse workplace may cause challenges. However it will benefit the company

In today’s society there are many culturally diverse people in the workforce. Most organizations can no longer make the assumption that every employee has similar beliefs or expectations. When entering into the global marketplace, people are considered one of the most valuable resources to an organization’s success. A well-managed culturally diverse workforce has the potential to thrive if managed correctly; or if mismanaged, there can be devastating negative attributes. With great expectations, culturally diverse employees can foster positive outcomes in the workplace. A company’s acknowledgement to embrace diversity and change, and implement the value of management techniques are

Many opportunities are associated with a culturally diverse workplace and global expansion may have potential to provide just such a diverse work group. Cross-culturalism in business can provide leaders and employees with a wonderful opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures. In addition, “the more opportunities for business leaders to interact with people from different cultures, the more likely they will be to have positive attitudes from different cultures and identify, learn and apply diverse culturally-appropriate business behaviors” (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2012, p. 614). Culturally diverse environments offer a multitude of benefits including “the variety of perspectives, skills and personal attributes” (Matveeve & Nelson, 2004, p. 254). Moreover, multicultural teams have potential to “generate more ideas of higher quality in brainstorming tasks” (Matveeve &