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Work with diverse people
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Ways diversity impact work and relation at workplace
Cultural diversity is one of the main things that are being valued in any organization particularly when it is related to a business or community service organization. It is the main thing that affects people who work at same workplace and there have been witnessed various ways that impacts work as well as relationship of workers because of cultural diversity. Diversity means the difference that exists there between people who work at the same place. These differences include attributes such as religion, race, opinions, thoughts, traditions, values, ethnicity, beliefs, gender, marital status and physical abilities of people. This fact cannot be denied that there are both positive as well as negative impacts of diversity on the working of an organization and relationship between people who work in it.
It has been witnessed that diversity cast impacts on the overall working of an organization in various ways. These ways include staff retention, processes of decision making and style of management. On the other hand, this fact cannot be denied that at most of the workplaces diversity cast negative impacts in different ways as it creates barriers and incorporates miscommunication among workers. Dysfunctional adaptation behaviour is another way cultural diversity influences the workplace and relation of workers. Taking in account the present scenario, it won’t be wrong to say that cultural diversity is considered positive as globalization could be found everywhere. It also depends on employees and employers how they are going to take cultural diversity whether positively or negatively.
Benefits of diversity at an organization
This thing could be clearly seen that there are benefits as well as damages of diversity at workplace. It depends on the workers and management how they are going to see diversity at their workplace. If management and workers have created a positive environment and have accepted diversity open-heartedly, they would be enjoying benefits of cultural diversity at the workplace. On the other hand, if management and workers would take diversity negatively then there would be unhealthy effects of diversity at the workplace. There are innumerable benefits of diversity that one could witness at any workplace or organization. The first benefit of diversity is, productivity increases at the workplace as there would be workers of different cultures who have different thoughts, beliefs and cultures (Flynn,et,al,2018). These workers would be viewing things from different critical angles that would ultimately help the organization for increasing its productivity. Secondly, creativity would increase at the workplace as different opinions would be given by workers who belong from various areas having different ideology and thinking. Thirdly, it has been seen that organization where diversity is appreciated profit increase ultimately.
Next benefit that has been commonly observed at the workplace because of diversity is improved engagement of employees as they become interested in knowing things, values, beliefs and traditions of those workers who are from different cultures. Up next on the list of benefits of diversity at workplace is direct access to a wider range of skills as employees would have a wider range of interest and areas of expertise that would help others workers for improving their skills. One of the main benefits of diversity that one could witness at the workplace would be improved cultural insight. People belonging to different cultures would interact with each other and it would help them for knowing more about other's culture. This insight in various cultures would help for improving the ways how workers see each other’s culture. Workers would start having a better understanding about other cultures when they would interact more with people belonging to diverse cultures. Learning new things, in new ways is the main thing that is considered being most beneficial, when diversity is witnessed at any organization.
Need for inclusivity, cultural safety and cultural competence
Keeping the cultural diversity in mind along with importance of globalization, every organization tries to provide a healthy working environment to its workers by accepting the fact of cultural diversity. Inclusivity means including those workers in the large group who belongs to other cultures and groups. In past, diversity was looked upon as a negative thing at a workplace, but now this conception has been changed. Diversity is considered important for building good reputation of a company in the market. This positive reputation increases the profitability of the company and opportunities for the employees. Inclusive culture has become one of the basic needs of workplaces at present. It means people from different cultures should be included or hired at workplace. All the workers should be given representation so that an environment of equality could be promoted. For promoting fairness at a workplace inclusivity must be given value. People belonging to diverse cultural groups should be included in an organization by making them realized that they are valuable part of the organization. For winning confidence, trust, respect and love, an organization has to give topmost value to inclusivity.
Workers should be ensured that their cultural values, beliefs and traditions would be respected at all level in an organization. Respecting diversity entails something more than tolerance. Cultural safety means denying the dominance of a particular group, cultural barriers and hegemony by incorporating the ability to manage a diverse workforce in management. Cultural safety is most important thing for making diverse workforce realize that being different from the rest is their specialty that they should use in positive ways. Cultural competence is another major thing that is needed at workplaces. Cultural competence is the ability to effectively interact with those who are from other cultural groups. Accepting people who are from different cultures is ability and workers should be trained for developing such ability so that the cultural conflict could be overcome. Inclusivity, cultural safety and cultural competence have become essential elements of surviving for an organization in today’s competitive atmosphere.
Reflection of biases, prejudices and cultural characteristics
Reflection of staff about their identity, biases and prejudices is important for an organization as it would help an organization in making their policies and knowing areas where they have to work more for eliminating cultural conflicts. Workers must reflect how they see themselves and what things of their culture would be beneficial for the organization. Cultural characteristics include language, religion, customs, art, literature, social organization and many others things. These characteristics are necessary to be reflected by the workers so that their co-workers could respect them. Biases are another thing that must be reflected by the employees so that employees could be trained for practising things that would help the organization in its growth (Douglas,et,al,2018). Reflection of staff on individualism, biases and prejudices is important as it would create a picture of them and policies of organization would be made accordingly. Reflection of employees would also reflect what thoughts they have about various concepts like, prejudice and biases. Also it is important that employees would reflect their identity being cultural different from others so that co-workers could know about their cultural values and beliefs that would help them for initiating healthy interaction.
Accommodation and valuing diversity
One of the essential things that have been pointed by the experts for successfully running an organization is valuing diversity. Diversity should be valued for reducing the cultural conflicts of people so that they could accept and appreciate the cultural difference. Diversity should be valued and accommodated by eliminating policies that inculcate a feeling of discrimination. Also behaviour that discourages cultural diversity should be reformed. Respecting diversity mainly includes valuing the uniqueness of workers of diverse culture. There are various ways through which diversity could be accommodated and valued at the workplace. Diversity should be appreciated and the cultural needs of workers belonging to different cultures should be respected. Accommodation and valuing of diversity are necessary as these two are the only things that work best not only for employees of different cultures but for the organization as well. An organization would have different people who would be having different ideas for making the workplace a better place than ever in the market. Accommodation and valuing of diversity both are necessary for successfully running an organization and promotion of cultural diversity. Diversity should be respected and accommodated by breaking the hegemony of one cultural group. Different people should be given different top positions at workplaces by ignoring their cultural identity as their skills and abilities should be more focused.
Building Mutuality and beneficial relationship among workers and clients
At present, all the efforts are being made for making the workers realize that cultural diversity is a positive thing that must be promoted by organization and workers. The negative connotation that was attached with cultural diversity must be eliminated now as a welcoming attitude for cultural diversity has been considered the only option for surviving in the marketplace that has become a small global village. There are some simple activities which could help in building a beneficial relationship not only among the workers but also the clients for whom an organization puts in all its effort (Knudson,et,al,2018). Events should be arranged where workmates are going to have the opportunity for knowing each other. They should be given such chances where they would have healthy communication that would help in breaking the cultural barriers. Following are the measures that should be promoted for creating effective and mutually beneficial relationships with workmate, clients and families of the clients:
By asking suggestions from the employees about different functions and activities of the organization as this act will give them a sense of belonging.
Solving personal issues of employees that they are going through.
Keeping transparency in communication and information flow.
Encouraging a positive and supportive environment where employees would share their problem openly with each other.
Arranging parties where families would meet each other. It would help them in developing healthy relationships.
Overcoming communication barriers
Cultural diversity is most commonly observed at workplaces and this thing becomes clear than ever before as industrialization and globalization took over the world. Communication is the main thing that could build a relation and at the same time, it can destroy a relationship as well. If one knows how to communicate with others he would definitely develop good relations with others but when it is about workplace one has to be more careful while communicating. Communication barrier at the workplace is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Cultural conflicts become more obvious with communication barriers. There are some ways that help in overcoming communication barriers. First of all healthy communication should be promoted at the workplace where there would be cultural diversity.
Communication barriers could be overcome by defining a limited communication and one should speak only when communication is needed. Only those topics should be discussed in groups that do not highlight cultural differences. For overcoming communication barriers, those slangs should be avoided that hurts others. Having awareness of cultural diversity before starting a conversation, is also an important way of overcoming the communication barriers. Arranging sessions of communication where workers from different cultures would be guided on how to participate in discussions and how to eliminating communication barriers is also a good way for overcoming communication barriers.
Cultural and individual needs to be accommodated and respected
For efficient working of an organization, it is important to have knowledge about the culture of the clients. Clients with different cultures must be respected so that they could show trust in an organization. Clients having cultural diversity should be accommodated by knowing more about their traditions and values. Cultural needs of clients are focused more and this thing increased with the advancement of globalization. Clients from various cultures should be looked upon with respect and their cultural needs must be respected as globalization has shrunk this world into a small global village. It is not difficult to learn or gather information about the cultural needs of clients.
It is important for an organization who want to respect its client’s cultural needs, to know its own values and beliefs that would be assisting clients from diverse cultural populations. The key success of most of the organizations is that they keep in consideration their client's cultural needs and among these needs the most important that is given top most priority are religion and spiritual beliefs. There is no doubt that all the organizations are working for delivering their best services to the clients. It has been generally observed that without taking in mind their cultural needs it is impossible to earn client satisfaction.
This fact cannot be denied that organizations that are working at large scale and are recognized worldwide has to face this issue the most as they have to take care of things that are acceptable for most of the cultures. Generally, it has been seen that organizations focus on making policies that would promote the factor or attitude of respecting cultural demands and needs of most clients.. Respect for cultural needs is one of the most important things that could make an organization successful. Satisfying cultural needs of clients would win their confidence, values, traditions, spiritual beliefs and cultural ideologies that should be valued under all circumstances.
Methods for overcoming and preventing cultural conflicts
Witnessing issues of cultural conflict has become a common thing and after taking an in-depth analysis of this issue the need of resolving this issue become the utmost demand of time, organizations and people who have become a victim of this cultural conflict. For a successful business and peaceful environment, it is important to resolve all the cultural conflicts. There are various methods that are used for resolving cultural issues and these methods include determining and reforming attitudes, using cooperative verbiage and promoting negotiate techniques, making diverse teams, arranging trips, celebrating and bringing any cultural nuance at front so that employees belonging to different cultures could celebrate and respect others National Days that they used to celebrate in their native homes and areas. All these methods of breaking the cultural conflicts are essential for catering the situation that makes it difficult for some employees to continue their work.
Successful cultural conflict solutions must have three aspects i.e. a desire should be there for resolving this issue, understanding should be developed in people so that they could understand why there are some barriers that must be resolved and most important is the choice of the method that is used for solving issues. Methods that promote understanding of cultural conflicts help in minimizing negativity at workplace.
Strategies for improving self-awareness
Self- awareness means knowing about own self. In simple words, it means knowing yourself beyond thoughts, beliefs, skills and attitude. It means having a sharp realization of personality. There are various things that are included in self-awareness i.e. knowing strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, emotions, goals and beliefs etc. Knowing your mental power is really important for having a good life as when one knows about his mentality, it becomes easy for him to guess what thoughts people would have about him/her. Many researchers proved that the better one knows about himself/herself, the better he/she could understand what people would perceive about him/her. Self-awareness helps in achieving a life that one wishes to have. Following are the strategies that help in improving self-awareness:
Try to know your weakness and strength fairly.
Ask people about your personality and listen to their feedback.
Try to develop intuitive decision-making abilities and skills.
Be clear about your emotional triggers
Try to set boundaries and never break them.
Practice more and more self-discipline.
Be open-minded
Try to have new experiences in life for your learning and growth.
Discover your physical and emotional limits.
Motivate yourself and never have any negative thinking about yourself.
References
Douglas, S. R., Doe, C., & Cheng, L. (2018). Hindered Competence: How Interlocutors Inhibit Workplace Communication.
Flynn, M. A., Castellanos, E., & Flores-Andrade, A. (2018). Safety across cultures: Understanding the challenges. Professional Safety, 63(01), 28-32.
Knudson, C., Kay, K., & Fisher, S. (2018). Appraising geodiversity and cultural diversity approach to building resilience through conservation. Nature Climate Change, 1.
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