Cultural Diversity Management - Essay Example

? Cultural Diversity management – Business Ethics and CSR Table of Contents Introduction Diversity management and Intercultural Understanding Managing Diversity in Globalization Era – Focus upon CRS and Business Ethics Conclusion Introduction Diversity is a term that refers to all the ways in which people differ. The diversity can ranges beyond the race, ethnicity, age, gender, education, geographic, region, religion, sexual preferences and parental status (Baroutas, 2011, p43). Workplace diversity is an important by product of diversity. It’s a people issue that focuses upon the differences and similarities that people usually bring to an organization (Hacker, 2011, p93; Susan, 2011, p183; Joe Joe, 2011, p52). In today’s world most of the organizations give preference to collaborative work group that would be diverse in nature and comprise of men and women belonging from different cultures, ethnic groups and educational background because in the era of globalization it has become imperative for the firms to develop team of workers consisting of people of different cultures and races (Cox and Taylor, 2011, p35; Guest and Shacklock, 2011, p728). Management of workplace diversity is an important issue and success of organizations depends upon deep understandings of workgroup diversity implication on the behaviours and performance of the workers (Ingo and Koslowski, 2011, p91). The firms have to show the cultural intelligence and understanding of cultural diversity to adequately manage their cross border business operations and it is almost impossible to successfully manage international business without the practice of diversity management while focusing upon the issues of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (Martin, 2011, p336). Diversity management is about creating a work environment that draws people from a broad social spectrum – one that appoints on merit regardless of gender, sexuality, age, colour, class and disability or any other difference (Keay, 2011, p76). It is very important for the organizations to audit the different aspects of recruitment process in an organization to know that the recruitment process is based on talents not on the racial, gender and cultural differences (John et al, 2011, p101; Simeon, 2011, p65; Giovanni, 2011, p157). Diversity management and Intercultural Understanding Workplace diversity can be understand and managed through different importance elements like gender, culture, skills, educational backgrounds and physical and mental capabilities of the employees (Berit and Klaus, 2011, p21; Dean and Keith, 2011, p32). All of these issues possess great importance in the context of diversity management at workplace because the organizations of the modern globalized era are supposed to deal with the employees regardless of their gender and cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds (Winch, 2011, p76; Pilhofer, 2011, p17). Diversity management required intelligent use of intercultural communication that is basically human activity that took place when the senders and receivers of the message belong to different cultures. The degree and forms of intercultural communication has changed along with time and at present many fields like media, business, education, scientific research and education are crammed with unparalleled intercultural interaction between people belonging to different ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Zack, 2011, p143). The theorists have presented numerous theoretical frameworks to assist effectively confronting the situations in multicultural group setting by employing the phenomenon of intercultural communication for better diversity management practice (Ely et al, 2011, p229; Billy, 2011, p93). These theories act as guideline to reduce misunderstanding and enhance the effectiveness of diverse cultural group work and cross border collaboration. Hall (1959) presented the conceptual framework for intercultural communication for the very first time in “The Silent Language” and put forward the notion that culture compels people to act and respond in certain manner. Diversity management is important because the behaviours of people could best understood and manipulate in the cultural context because the people tend to get involved in the activities that are culturally accepted in their societies (Seymen, 2006, p296; Repeckiene1 et al, 2011, p882; Steven et al, 2010, p1442; Aycan et al, 2011, p192). Hofstede (1994) significantly adds to the understanding about the diversity management in reference to intercultural communication. He proposes the concept of culture as collective mind programming that allow the human beings to differentiate one group of people from the other. This concept explains that the intercultural communication not only needs the understanding of the environment of any group of people but also requires reviewing their personalities and nature of the individuals (Antonio and Francesco, 2011, p32). Hofstede portrays the concept of culture as onion comprising of several layers and also presented a layered model of culture. He proposes that each layer of culture is result of its lower layer and is also dependent upon the lower one. The culture layers identified by Hofsetede include “rituals, heroes and symbols”. These layers are carried out through invisible cultural practice (Frank, 2006, p18). Oatey (2000) also clarifies the importance of cultural diversity management and identifies the interpretative role of culture. He explains that the intercultural communication is also affected from the people’s ways of perceiving other people behaviours and reveals that the people behaviour is not only influence by their own set of beliefs and norms but also their interpretation of other people behaviours. Hence, the culturally diverse interactions must be managed keeping in view the perception of one group of people about the other (Duchesne, 2011, p54). These models and theories divulged by different social scientists explain that intercultural awareness is the key to success in culturally diverse situations and there are certain elements that must be thoroughly studied to gain cross cultural understanding. It is possible to have insight over these cultural issues effectively employing skills of intercultural communication. The issue of cultural diversity management has further become important in the context of corporate social responsibility (Deardorff, 2011, p241; Agars and Kottkie, 2011, p54). Managing Diversity in Globalization Era – Focus upon CRS and Business Ethics The world community has experienced manifold effects of globalization that have transformed different aspect of interaction, business and well beings of the people. It has specifically drawn some intense impact upon the industrial and manufacturing sectors because it allows the consumer an access to the diverse foreign array of commodities. CSR is an evolving phenomenon that refers to the commitment of the businesses towards making significant contributions to the sustainable economic development and improvement of life quality. It is set of management practice that consents to the business meeting the legal, ethical, commercial and public expectations of the society. CRS also assures adequate practice of cultural diversity so that people of all the cultures could be given due response, opportunities and place within an organization according to their skills and work capabilities. The increased global activities and operations of multinational corporations (MNCs) have evolved the CSR debate that assumes MNCs and other large private companies formulating formal CSR guideline to address the issue of cultural diversity as well. Experts believe that proliferation of cross border trade operations backed by globalization have foster the awareness regarding the practice of CSR and the businesses are required to focus upon the measures that can help them in management of culturally diverse workforce (Ihlen, 2011, p65). The global economy has made it almost mandatory for international corporations that an effective strategy is adopted for managing the diversity. Companies are moving towards flatter organizational structures, and the global economy is allowing the movement of the workforce across national boundaries, effective interaction amongst diverse workers becomes more critical for the smooth organizational functioning. In fact now a debate has started whether the concept of ‘managing diversity; forms an alternative to ‘equal opportunities’ based on gender bias. In the UK, human resource practitioners and academics alike are becoming more aware of the emergence of managing diversity. There are now views that, after twenty years of the ‘stick’ of legal compliance, the ‘carrot’ of underpinning the business case for equal opportunities will perhaps achieve more. With the growing number of mergers and acquisitions, workforce diversity will become more of a priority for organizations and, therefore, in the future, people will become clearer on what diversity is and how to manage it. The business case for managing diversity therefore offers a way to operate equal opportunities as a strategic issue, a core value linked to organizational competitiveness. Diversity not only comes in the form of culture and values, but it also consists of several other visible and non-visible factors, which include personal characteristics such as sex, race, age, background, culture, disability, personality and work-style. Harnessing these differences is bound to create a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, their talents are fully utilized and organizational goals are met. Considering these factors, the underlying philosophy of managing diversity tends to imply that an organization can gain massive competitive advantage, resulting in enhanced performance with the help of a satisfied human capital. It rests on the premise that the organization will be able to serve increasingly diverse customers, meet increasingly complex business and management problems by actively seeking and managing a diverse workforce. In the era of globalization, when MNCs prefer to take advantage of multi-location facilities, lower costs of production, and expertise from the world over, diversity is bound to be there at the workplace. It is for the organization to manage the diversity by recognizing, appreciating, valuing, encouraging and utilizing the unique talents and contributions of individuals from across a wider spectrum of society. But circumstances sometimes create peculiar conditions which brings to the fore the inherent weaknesses prevalent in our society. There are rules and regulations which provide broad guidelines for keeping a delicate balance in dealing with such matters so that mutual harmony is maintained amongst the workforce. Conclusion The entire discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that the world is a rich and diverse place that is full of interesting cultures and people who should be treated with respect. Skirmishes arising out of discriminatory behaviour often result in tensions amongst colleagues. Globalization has made it mandatory for the business entities to give importance to the cultural diversity management. 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