Cultural diversity in our workplace Globalization or the world in one place has brought about the need for

cultural diversity in our workplace. Whats more, the Medias around the world today have all contributed to the shrinkage of international market. Due to the fact that Medias are no longer reliable, companies have seen the need to be very diverse in their workplace and market in order to be able to compete in this current global world. (Gadget, 2011). However, when people examine the word culture diversity, they only talk about the difference of age, race, sex, religion, and culture. I would like to stress that cultural diversity is more than that. According to (University of California, San Francisco, n.d) diversity can be defined as the kind of feeling and view that arise from difference in race, culture, religion, mental or physical abilities, heritage, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other characteristics. In other words, there can be different definition for diversity, but whatever definition we give must be related to the features surrounding it. On the other hand, looking at cultural diversity in workplace, culture is a transferable knowledge for human dealing within a particular environment that is passed down for the benefit of later generations. (Fitzgerald, 2011). Also, when diversity is in place, the benefits of cultural diversity tend to come naturally. Nevertheless, cultural diversity has led to a situation where people from different countries work together in a firm and this has raised a lot of questions as to whether there is a need for cultural diversity in our workplace. Well, my answer is yes, and I will be supporting my motion with the following points, which are diverse experience, communication, and integration. First of all, the current global world today requires firms to be diverse in their workplace. To achieve this, they need to have people with diverse experience from different race, culture, religion, with different qualities. People from different background can bring their own unique

knowledge and perspectives to practice in groups and teams in a firm. Also, having diverse experience and skills of ethnically distinguishable workers together in a company can improve the teams productivity and lead to high response to change in conditions. Furthermore, workplace diversity creates an opportunity for employees personal growth. Working with different people with different culture, perception, and new ideas can help workers extend rationally and acquire a clear perspectives of their surroundings and their place in the world. Although, each worker possesses unequal advantages and disadvantages understood from their culture in addition to their personal identity, which could lead to complacency. In other words, due to the unique knowledge and skills some of the workers contribute in a company, they may become satisfied with themselves, thinking they are better than some people in the company, and thereby creating a scene in the process. (Ingram.D, 2011). Nevertheless, if a scenario like this should take place in a company, the manager of the company is to be blame for it. The managers job is to plan, organize, lead, and control. Also, when workers in a company are well handled, diversity in workplace can make the best of their strengths and complement their weaknesses to make the impact of workforce greater than the whole of its parts. Secondly, communication in workplace is very important. Diversity communication affects workplace in different ways. Having a diverse communication system in a company brings a great deal of advantage. Besides, many companies around the world today prefer to hire bilingual customer service representative to deal with foreign customers in their native language. Furthermore, having a diverse workplace communication enables firms to pair off their customer service representatives with customers from their specific demographic, and in the process making the customers feel comfortable with the representatives, and simultaneously with the firms. On the down side, diverse workplace communication can also have some negative effects

on a company. For instance, communication diversity can create hindrance between colleagues at work in the way of effective communication, which could lead to decrease in productivity and disunion of small groups. However, workers can overcome communication barrier in a long-run when they work together, but they can be very difficult to control when culture clashes. (Ingram.D, 2011). Also, this kind of situation is preventable if a firm has a good manager, because the managers job is to organize and segment the workers into different groups and teams and at the same time monitoring their day to day activities. Finally, integration is the act of incorporating a racial group into a community. Diversity integration in workplace creates an atmosphere for employees to share knowledge, skills, and experience, and simultaneously lead to productive growth and effectiveness in groups and teams. Apart from that, diversity integration in workplace leads to an organization of cliques and undivided social groups which can be difficult to control at times. However, this could lead to a situation where culturally diverse workers avoid their fellow workers during break time and after work, and in the process creating an informal division in the staff of the company. Even though, there is really nothing wrong with this scene, because some employees might find their fellow employees annoying, it can obstruct the effectiveness of working together and thereby leading to low productive growth and decrease in the effectiveness of groups and teams. (Ingram.D, 2011). Also, it is the managers job to make sure things are in order in the company. Of course, the problem might be because some of the employees are not in the right group or team. So as soon as the manager gets the whole situation fixed, everything will be back to normal. Besides, it is crucial that the employees work together because that is the only way the company can move forward.

On the whole, I believe I have given some well thought reasons why the need for cultural diversity in our workplace is essential with the following points that I have already explained above, which are diverse experience, communication, and integration. Also, when a firm has a reliable manager, the firm will benefit more from the advantages of cultural diversity than the disadvantages. So, I will end by saying without the aid of cultural diversity, a firm cant go global.

References:Fitzgerald.T.K, 2011, Understanding diversity in the workplace: cultural metaphors or metaphors of identity? Viewed 10 October 2011, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n4_v40/ai_20141967/?tag=mantle_skin;content> University of California, San Francisco, n.d, Chapter 12: Managing diversity in the workplace, Viewed 10 October 2011, < http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managingdiversity-in-the-workplace/>

Gadget, 2011, Benefits and Problems of a diverse workplace, Viewed 10 October 2011,
<http://mr-gadget.hubpages.com/hub/Benefits-and-Problems-of-a-Diverse-Workplace>

Ingram.D, 2011, Advantages and disadvantages of diversity in workplace, Viewed 10 October 2011, <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-diversity-workplace-3041.html>