Good Example Of Diversity Essay

Part 1: General Background on the Issue

The workplace is an environment that can potentially be filled with different kinds and types of people. Diversity in the workplace often refers to the variety of people working in a certain organization. diversity in the workplace almost always pertain to cultural diversity, which in turn refers to the differences between the race, and or ethnic group that people working for the organization have come from. It has been mentioned in literatures that diversity in the workplace can have a direct effect on the way the organization moves and performs, at least from a larger organizational perspective.
It has been fairly established and accepted that people from one culture or ethnic group would almost always have a different perspective when it comes to decision making for example, when compared to another person who is from a different culture or ethnic group. Members of a team or department are expected to deliver high levels of productivity—a typical measure used in determining group performance, and in order to reach high levels of productivity, individual group members are expected to communicate and coordinate their efforts well. Having a fairly high level of diversity in an organization can be rewarding but just like any other strategic decision, it has its own set of cons, one of which is its potential to become a barrier to the productivity of an organization .
In this case, there can be two entities that may be affected. First and foremost, how the different people from different culture interact, either positively or negatively, during normal day to day operations within the organization, directly affects the organization itself so it only makes sense to consider it as a primary stakeholder when it comes to the issue of workplace diversity. In the same way, the people working within the organization may also be affected because different people adjust differently to different workplace changes. There may be some who will be able to adapt swiftly to an environment filled with a lot of people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
On the downside, there may be also some who may not. The decision to allow a high level of cultural diversity in the workplace is a decision that the managing partners or in a corporate setting, the executives or human resources manager have to carefully consider. The general premise is that people from different cultures behave differently and unfortunately, there is no uniform way how different cultures react to organizational changes within the context of human resources management and workplace diversity aside from studying the person’s reaction to similar changes individually through observation.

Part 2: Workplace Diversity in relation to business

Communication is an important part of any business process and or operation that involves the effort of more than one person. It can spell the difference between a highly successful and a failed business operation. A team or department that is composed of individuals who know how to communicate is almost always expected to outperform a team or an entire department that does not have standard operating procedures or a chain of command when it comes to communicating . As organizations become more culturally diverse, members of the organization often feel the pressure to learn to go out of their comfort zones when it comes to communicating. If before, they can already thrive by just knowing the local culture in which the business operates, things can be significantly different if we now place the differences in the local culture and the new workers’ culture into the equation. This is because failure to consider the underlying direct and indirect cultural communication issues may lead to counterproductive-ness and even embarrassing situations.
An extremely high level of cultural diversity often complicates the successful completion of certain business processes because of communication barriers such as the one we used in our example. Since it is apparent that the world would only become more globalized over the next years or even decades and that this trend of globalization is not expected to change or reverse anytime soon, organizations and the people working on them have no choice but to adapt to the changes that this global phenomenon brings, one of the most important of which is the organizations’ shift towards the creation of a more culturally diverse workplace. Indeed, workplace diversity can prove to be both an advantage and a disadvantage. As mentioned, it can be a disadvantage because of the concomitant creation of communication barriers within the organization.
The managers in an organization that is planning to hire a culturally diverse workforce, however, must not only focus on the disadvantages, but rather on whether the advantages of the shift towards higher levels of workplace diversity outweigh the cons. Some advantages that having a highly diverse workforce or workplace brings include but may not be limited to the following: increased adaptability, a broader range of service, a higher level of viewpoint diversity, and often more effective execution of tasks .

Part 3: Personal Examples of Diversity Issues

The universal language is English and for people who originate from non-native English speaking countries, it may be more challenging for them to look for work in an organization that is composed mainly of English speaking personnel or one that caters to an English speaking population.

Works Cited

Ely, R. and D. Thomas. "Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspective on Work Group Processes and Outcomes Summary." Administrative Science Quarterly (2001): https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.mit.edu%2Fcortiz%2Fwww%2FDiversity%2FEly%2520and%2520Thomas%2C%25202001.pdf&ei=x0nSVNP8D4ThuQTiiYGoDg&usg=AFQjCNH4_mMhHFV-8SHnw7d53DeVXYxs.
Greenberg, J. "Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and Solutions." The Multicultural Advantage (2014): http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefits-challenges-solutions.asp.
Richard, O. "Racial Diversity, Business Strategy, and Firm Performance: A Resource-Based View Abstract." Academy of Management Journal (2000): http://amj.aom.org/content/43/2/164.abstract.