¶ … Corporate Cultural Diversity
There are numerous studies in the field that reveal the importance of cultural diversity, and its effects on productivity, performance, and corporate success. In an article posted in the Houston Chronicle, Paul Merchant describes some of these effects (Merchant, 2013). The article is titled "the Positive Influence of cultural Diversity in Organizational Behavior" and can be also found on the online version of the publication.
The article addresses numerous issues regarding cultural diversity within the workplace. Some of these issues are represented by how companies define and establish their cultural diversity, how organizational behavior can be transformed with the help of cultural diversity, how cultural diversity can be influenced, and how it can be improved through certain programs. The targeted audience of the article seems to be represented by individuals that work in human resources or organizational development departments, but also by people that want to learn more about behavior. Employees can also find certain benefits from reading this article, because it provides scientific explanations on the importance of cultural diversity. Therefore, they can learn how cultural diversity can help them improve performance, which makes them more tolerant to other employees that represent different cultures.
The article states that cultural diversity involves the differences between members of different organizations that are determined by nationality, race, gender, religion age. However, there are also other factors that determine diversity between employees. Diversity also refers to different lifestyles, to different musical preferences, to different leisure time spending, and others.
Organizational behavior reflects the nature of interactions between people and groups within organizations. Cultural diversity and its effects help people within the organization develop relationships, and tolerate each other's differences. It is important that companies understand the importance of cultural diversity on organizational behavior.
However, there are also certain potential threats when trying to develop cultural diversity within the workplace. If this process is not supervised and kept under control, employees in an environment where cultural diversity is attempted to be increased can find themselves in conflictive situations. There are numerous examples of situations where younger employees prefer to work during listening to music, telling jokes in order to reduce the tension of the atmosphere, and sharing their personal problems with their colleagues. This can be disturbing for some of the elder colleagues that cannot focus on their work because of their colleagues' behaviors.
In such cases, most employees usually think that age differences are the reason. However, this is not entirely true. There are also elder employees that like listening to music and telling jokes when working. This means that the differences in behavior are determined by differences in lifestyles. In addition to this, the requirements of each job determine these different lifestyles. There are jobs where employees must work longer hours. In these cases, employees do not have so much time for their personal lives. Therefore, they are determined to solve their personal problems during their working schedules, and to share them with their colleagues, which can be disturbing for others.
In these cases, where people do not understand each others' lifestyles, it is necessary for the organization to arbitrate these conflicts. Most of these small conflicts are solved by employees that are involved in them. But in the case of conflicts generated by cultural diversity it is necessary that managers solve them. This is because conflicts determined by cultural diversity refer to the different perceptions of individuals. It is difficult for them to change perceptions, or to understand the fact that other people have different perceptions from theirs.
Recommendations for Improving Cultural Diversity and Reducing Conflicts
There are several strategies that companies can develop in their attempt to reduce conflicts and improve cultural diversity within the workplace. It is important to define and establish cultural diversity in the case of each company. This helps them to establish objectives and to determine the direction in which the company intends to orient.
The solutions are numerous and more diversified. Knowledge is crucial for business success. There are two types of knowledge: explicit or tacit. The explicit type is easily codified, stored and transmitted to other individuals. As opposed to the former, the tacit one is embedded in people. The size of the tacit knowledge is proportional to the diversity of the workplace. Therefore, organizations face the increasing challenge today of finding ways
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