Cultural difference

Cultural Differences in the Workplace

Cultural differences in the workplace are a typical occurrence because people come from various backgrounds and come to work together. Workplace diversity trainers typically emphasize that employees have more commonalities than differences. Despite the fact that employees have many commonalities, distinctions are arising. A group’s culture is a set of shared values and ideas. Most aspects of people’s lives are dictated by culture, and it is not uncommon for this to show in the workplace. There are cultural differences in education, since some cultures associate success with one’s level of education, whereas others do not. This might be an issue at work during a promotion or position assignment. Cultural difference emerges from an employee’s personal background, and ethnicity. Where an individual grows, influence their character and beliefs and a person who grew up knowing certain things are wrong can be repulsed if they see such things happening in the office. Cultural difference is a popular issue at the workplace but makes the difference is how the management deals with it. If the company promotes differences among employees, it creates an avenue where employees can be themselves, productive, and effective.

Importance of the Cultural Difference

Cultural difference in the workplace is a common issue, yet some organizations fail to address it. It affects employees’ performance and how they relate to one another. Cultural difference is significant since it touches employees’ lives and performance and finding ways to dealing with it is important for growth. Studying cultural diversity in the workplace gives a better understanding how employees interact and what they think should be done to make the workplace more diverse. Moreover, it helps in understanding what organizations need to do create a friendly environment, where different ideas are welcomed.

Thesis Statement

Cultural differences in the workplace can cause problems for organizations if they are not handled properly.

Hypotheses

Cultural differences make organizations stronger

Cultural differences promote diversity

Cultural differences promote learning and growth

Literature Review

In today’s world, cultural diversity is at the highest peak it has ever been. More people are getting into the workforce, from different cultural backgrounds. With many people joining the workforce, organizations are faced with the need to create a diverse environment, where everyone feels equal. This can be challenging for companies that have not experienced such shifts before. People with different sex, age, and ethnicity make up the workforce. Having a diverse workforce give organizations an opportunity to improve performance. As Dr. Sondra Thiederman stated, there is need to create a diverse environment where even women are equal players. Companies need to adapt to changes in the workforce to deal with emerging challenges. Failure to deal with emerging challenges as a result of diversity can lead to reduced productivity. Moreover, diversity increases organizations’ effectiveness. It boosts morale and improves productivity (Sarala, 2012). Diversity is good for organizations since it promotes learning and growth. A person’s ethnicity can affect his/her chances of getting employed. Some organizations discriminate people based on ethnicity, without knowing they deny themselves a chance to learn new things.

As a result of globalization, companies started employing people from different cultural backgrounds (Vaara, 2012)) state that the significance of foreigners in the corporate field is increasing and companies need to adapt to effectively handle challenges that might result from it. Moreover, people are moving to other places to look for work. Organizations need to develop structures to accommodate cultural diversity by training employees to be sensitive to one another. In a cross-cultural environment, leadership plays a big role in ensuring there is diversity. It promotes organizational behavior through teaching cultural sensitivity by workers (Sarala, 2010). Organizational behavior in a multi-cultural environment needs group feedback from employees. It is clear that cultural diversity affects organizations culture, according to Vaara. Minus effective management of cultural differences, employees can miss the goals and objectives of the organization. Failure to observe organizational culture means employees will not meet set objectives. Due to this collision, it is important to ensure employees understand the goals and objectives of the organization. Encouraging efficient relationships in multi-cultural settings need effective leadership to implement culturally sensitive policies and structures ( Mau, 2000). If an organization has a strong leadership that understands the importance of diversity, it is easy to enact structures that benefit everyone.

Cultural diversity is needed in fostering different perspectives and ideas in organizations (Vaara, 2012). Hence, having different personalities in a boardroom means people can look at things objectively and come up with the best solutions. Moreover, such ideas can be adapted to grow an organization. Multinational companies are continually hiring people from different backgrounds to have dynamic organizational cultures. Bringing together people with different expertise helps organizations become more effective and competitive. An organization’s ability to outsource employees from different cultural backgrounds is critical for growth. It plays a vital role in the growth of international markets because companies have experience in corporate environments. Hence, cultural diversity is not just helpful to people from different cultural backgrounds, but also to individual organizations. It is important to manage cultural differences to promote productivity and growth. Solving issues arising from cultural diversity is vital to the success of a company. Without strategies for dealing with issues, cultural differences can harm an organization. Being willing to lay aside differences and foster strong working relationships are important to the success of organizations. The ability to conflict individuals to appreciate each other and agree to work together is critical.

Methods

Cultural data takes the form of directly observable materials, performance, and behaviors of employees. From the ideology of cultural concepts, observations are recorded first with attention to cultural context. Since the research wants to establish cultural differences among employees (Cultural differences), they will take central part as a sample. Different samples will be used at a time to find out their opinion about how their differences are handled by organizations. Some will be interviewed directly, while others will use questionnaires. This will give researchers a chance to get comprehensive feedback. Observation is an important tool in this process. Employees and organizations will be observed to find out if cultural differences emerge and how they are dealing with. After the process, results will be recorded to help when concluding the study. Employees from different organizations will take part in the process. Moreover, formal interviews where questions regarding the research hypotheses will be conducted. This will enable researchers to get a clear understanding of the subject and its significance.

References

Mau, W. C. (2000). Cultural differences in career decision-making styles and self-efficacy. Journal of vocational behavior, 57(3), 365-378.

Sarala, R. M., & Vaara, E. (2010). Cultural differences, convergence, and crossvergence as explanations of knowledge transfer in international acquisitions. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(8), 1365-1390.

Vaara, E., Sarala, R., Stahl, G. K., & Björkman, I. (2012). The impact of organizational and national cultural differences on social conflict and knowledge transfer in international acquisitions. Journal of Management Studies, 49(1), 1-27.