CULTURAL DIVERSITY JACOB JOSE MOOLAN - 6908420
May 27, 2015
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
JACOB JOSE MOOLAN - 6908420
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8GDUIh_Tis
REFLECTION
Would you like to live/work in a place where everyone:
Is the same? (Homogeneous)or
Is different? (Heterogeneous)
What is Culture?
“the set of common beliefs and practices that a person shares with a group” (Robins et al., 2006)
The values, beliefs, attitudes, languages, symbols, rituals, behaviors and customs unique to a particular group of people and that are passed down from generation to generation
Cultural identity is how people recognize where they belong
What is diversity?
Three sources of diversity
1. demographic characteristic culture, ethnicity, language, age, gender, social
class, religion
2. personal characteristics age, gender, communication style, economic
background, personality
3. abilities and skills social and technical
Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity refers to the wide range of cultural differences found between and within nations Can be a result of natural circumstances (climate,
geography) or social circumstances (technology or demographics)
The cultural variety and cultural differences that exist in the world, a society, or an institution
The inclusion of diverse people in a group or organisation
Cultural diversity and its benefits
Rise people interpersonal skills. Increases team-work. Expand innovative and creativity. Different attitudes and behaviors. Skills and variety of language spoken. Growth company credibility. Increases productivity on complex tasks.
Rise people interpersonal skills
Increases interpersonal skills because people of various cultures when working together can easily understand the view of others.
Increases team-work.
consequently it increase team work inside the workplace.
Expand innovative and creativity.
Staff of different background can benefit when it is a time to create new project.
It also means different solution to a common problem.
Different attitudes and behaviors.
People behave differently and it can lead to better communication and strong relationship.
Skills and variety of language spoken.
Benefit of the industry, having a large range of language spoken by their staff could attract international guests, employee can benefit from learning new language consequently expand their knowledge.
Growth company credibility.
Having people from different backgrounds can make the company more attractive to potential guests and future employees.
Increases productivity on complex tasks.
A multicultural work environment also result in more effective execution of the tasks with different peoples input.
Studies say that,
Teams diverse in skill sets and knowledge levels, as well as ethnicity and culture, perform better than those with identical skills sets.
Life Without Diversity
Imagine that everyone in the room is the same. Exactly the same! Same hair, eye color, height, weight, gender, race, language. Everyone dresses the same and sounds the same.
look to your left and your right.
What do you see?
Challenges of Diversity
Communication Barriers
Resistance to Change
Socio-cultural Factors
Age and gender
Communication Barriers
Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork and low morale.
Age, gender and culture influence the messages sent and received.
Barriers to communication are factors that block or significantly destroy successful communication.
Communication barriers may be temporary and can be overcome.
Awareness and recognition are the first steps in formulating ways to overcome the barriers.
Common Communication Barriers
Virtual Work: isolates team members from socialization and face to face interaction, creating a lack of clarity.
Emotions: can leave some people unable to verbally express themselves clearly and coherently.
Gender: can be associated to the different styles between men and women on how they explain things.
Culture: expresses the values and patterns of behavior which can be very confusing, making it difficult to communicate.
Communication Barriers
Resistance to Change
Refusing to accept new policies
Why change something that works
We’ve always done it this way
Scared of failure and not being able to learn/adapt to new things
Not wanting to spend time and effort changing
Not understanding what is expected (the fear of the unknown)
Socio-cultural Factors
Race
Ethnicity
Culture
Religion
Age and gender Age is another challenge in today’s workplace. People may not be
used to communicating with different age groups . Older people may use old phrases/words to explain things not understood by a younger audience. Younger people may also use words too modern and not understood by an older generation.
Gender can affect communication as men and women often think about things differently. In Islamic culture especially, when a female and male communicate, certain traditions are followed, such as lack of eye contact and shaking hands, affecting perception and communication.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtD8A__a8WQ
Managing cultural diversity
Adopt an employee relationship management system.
Overcoming stereotyping and discrimination.
Training.
Empowerment of individual.
Appraisal and performance evaluation.
Implementing and practicing cultural diversity policy.
Equal treatment/treat people individually
Cultural Diversity Activities
Multicultural Calendars (cultural information divided by the month, holiday and country)
Readings
Quizzes
Fact sheets
Other tools that foster dialogue and questions within the organization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfkrSrYUS_I
Questions????