Cultural Differences: The Embracing Cultural Diversity

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Introduction

It is a moral and social responsibility of organizations and business enterprises to embrace cultural diversity within their organizational workforce (Özbilgin, 2009). The reliance on a diverse organizational workforce normally serves to be a sign of the diversity of the community that the business organization undertakes its operations. Ignoring cultural diversity can impose significant effects on the business performance of an organization, and can additionally impose huge costs regarding the damaged business reputation.

Cultural diversity can generally be described as valuing every organizational member as an individual. With this respect, managing diversity is core to the effective management of people within an organization, and it is usually relevant to the all the business processes and functions (Marlene, 2000).

The significant challenge when managing diversity is to establish an organizational culture that meets the values of every organizational member, which is needed to foster employee productivity.

Research studies report that most organizations are faced with difficulties during workforce recruitment, as a result, business enterprises and organizations that do not emphasize on managing diversity are gradually risking in the increasing competition for available talent across diverse cultures.

In the present business environment that is competitive, it is imperative that business enterprises explore all the potential sources that can be used to create a competitive advantage (Kwiatkowski, 2005). The implication of this is that employers must have an in depth understanding of the aspect of diversity and its relationship with business performance, this offers a framework through which business enterprises can compete productively.

This paper explores the cultural diversity issues that face the TMT companies in Europe, reasons why people may not appreciate the cultural point of view of others and how appreciating cultural diversity affects people’s ability to communicate effectively in the context of a multinational corporation.

The paper also offers suggestions regarding the steps that the company can take and policies that can be put in order to ensure that its global expansion strategy is successful.

Reasons why people may not appreciate the cultural viewpoint of others

The most significant challenge posed by cultural diversity in an organization is miscommunication; this is because of the differences in the interpretations of the messages associated with cross-cultural communication. This implies that it is difficult to manage and motivate individuals in an organizational environment that is culturally diverse (Human, 2005).

The second reason why individuals may not appreciate cultural viewpoint of others is because of cultural bias from the organizational members themselves. This entails cases of discrimination from fellow organizational members. This happens through avenues like racism. Through a high level of prejudice and biases, some people discriminate against other people who possess different characteristics. Cultural discrimination happens when the majority group confronts the representatives of minority group (Goldsmith & Hu-Chan, 2003).

In addition, assimilation is usually constrained by diversity in the organization. This is because any attempt to assimilate individuals into the organizational culture that is dominant poses negative influences to the organizational members and the larger organization. Additionally, individuals who have been subjected to assimilation usually have difficulties in expressing their opinions (Chartered Institute of Personal Development, 2006).

How appreciating cultural diversity affects peoples’ ability to communicate effectively in the context of a multinational corporation

Business enterprises have a moral and social responsibility of ensuring that they embrace diversity and equal opportunities. There are business case and legal case advantages associated with embracing diversity and equal opportunities within the organizational workforce. Diversity management is becoming an important concept that helps in the establishment of an organization that is diverse and reflects the community from which the organization undertakes its business operations (Bolman & Deal, 2008).

One of the most significant business case advantages associated with diversity and equal opportunities is that it results to an improved corporate reputation. Diversity in the workforce reflects an ethical position by the company, which in turn enhances the positive image of the company. This develops the partnership between the organization and its customers, which may help in expanding the customer base and ultimately the market share (Bishop & Glynn, 1999).

The second business case advantage is that diversity helps in the establishment of a reliable workforce owing to the fact that there are diverse people with diverse skills and experience. This is also enhanced by an extra source of talent for the company.

The third business case advantage is that diversity and equal opportunity helps in improving the staff relations and employee productivity. This is achieved through the adoption of good practice during diversity management and the implementation of equal opportunity policies. Employee productivity transforms to customer satisfaction which implies increased profitability and an increase in the market share (Baum, 1996).

Suggestions regarding the steps that the company can take and policies that can be put in place to help ensure the company’s global expansion are successful

The startup point for fostering cultural diversity within any organization entails valuing the individual differences and considering them as an organizational asset owing to the fact that individuals are usually different and distinctive in their own way, implying that each person within the organization has his/her own strengths and weakness.

Basing on this, the organization can make use of the rich mix of talent, expertise and experience which can offer significant contributions that can enhance organizational and individual performance (Bolman & Deal, 2008). The most effective approach to managing cultural diversity should entail a more proactive approach.

The following are the recommendations for TMT Companies in UK concerning the ways through which they can establish and sustain a diverse workforce and implement their equal opportunities policies (Kwiatkowski, 2005).

The first recommendation for the company is that it should implement urgent strategic advantages. The company must tailor their diversity management approach in a manner that the strategic benefits can be evaluated and realized quickly after its implementation.

This plays an integral role in the evaluation of the strategic success of the diversity management strategies. This requires the formulation of better protocols that are required to quantify the potential business contribution to the organization after the implementation of diversity management (Bishop & Glynn, 1999).

The second recommendation to the company is to focus on developing the strategic capability of its diversity practitioners. This requires further work aimed at strengthening the influencing ability and the strategic ability of the company’s diversity personnel. This will play an important role in embracing diversity by the company.

The third recommendation for the company is that it should focus on the growth of executive diversity leaders in order to address the diversity challenges facing the company. In order to realize this, the company can rely on the services of professional development providers and effective leadership approaches that embrace the significance of diversity within the organization.

In addition, it is recommended that the senior diversity practitioners within the organization should work closely together with top management team in order to facilitate the establishment of a more diverse organizational culture across all the organizational levels (IBM, 2009).

Flexibility is also an important attribute that business leaders in the present business environment can deploy in order to overcome the challenges imposed by cultural diversity. It can be viewed from two distinctive categories: the capability to carry out ones duties irrespective of cultures and location and the ability to handle change and uncertainty in the complex business environment.

In the context of cultural flexibility, efficient leaders should be able to go beyond cultural margins and come up with leadership approaches that are necessary for conducting business at the international level. They have to appreciate the fact that no single leadership methodology will be suitable for the different cultural orientations and therefore he should be able adjust his/her leadership approach in order to meet the situation (Özbilgin, 2009).

An implementation of the above guarantees an improvement in the business performance of the organization, competitive advantage through customer satisfaction and employee productivity. It is therefore important that the company does not only realize the importance of diversity and equal opportunity policies beyond complying with the legal requirements (Goldsmith & Hu-Chan, 2003).

References

Baum, J. (1996). Organizational Ecology. London: Sage Publications.

Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture Counts: changing power relations in education. Palmerston North: Dunmore press.

Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Chartered Institute of Personal Development. (2006). Diversity in Business: How Much progress have employers made? Diversity in Business , 3-15.

Goldsmith, M., & Hu-Chan, M. (2003). Global leadership: the next generation. New York: Pearson education Inc Prentice hall.

Human, N. (2005). Diversity management: for business success. London: Van Schaik.

IBM. (2009). IBM Global Study: Majority of Organisational Change Projects Fail. Retrieved from ibm.com: https://www.ibm.com/hk-en?lnk=m

Kwiatkowski, R. (2005). Trends in organisations and selection: an introduction. Journal of Managerial Psychology , 18 (5), 382-394.

Marlene, G. (2000). Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field. Journal of Business Communication , 33 (2), 488-502.

Özbilgin, M. (2009). Equality, diversity and inclusion at work: a research companion. Washington, DC: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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