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Running head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Cultural diversity

Name

Institution

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Cultural diversity

Introduction

Leaders in organisations face a lot of problems dealing with employees from different

cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, for the betterment of enterprises, leaders should understand

the cultural differences among their workers to create a united workforce (Trompenaars &

Turner, 2011). Culture is a social heritage and a form of responses established or designed to

manage the social interactions among various aspects of the society and the environment

(Shachaf, 2008). Culture determines what is essential or not, right or wrong, acceptable or

unacceptable, workable or not and it is passed to the future generations through learning or

immersion (Trompenaars, & Turner, 2011). Diversity, on the other hand, is bringing together

members representing different cultures to work under an organisation (Trompenaars, & Turner,

2011). Diversity comprises of all the elements making up a person, including gender, religion,

culture, and sexual orientation (Shachaf, 2008). Cultural diversity is, therefore, a set of diverse

people from different societies or cultures working in one organisation and whose aim is to

achieve similar goals as Shachaf (2008) puts it.

As a planning and development supervisor at Investment Department at Medical Services

Directorate in Ministry of Defense, Saudi Arabia, I have experienced both the benefits and

challenges of cultural diversity. The cultural differences that I have encountered as a leader

include education, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, ability, race, gender, language, and

sexual orientation. Am working with many people of different cultures at my department who

has diverse talents, skills, working experience, and excellent educational background where

some are better than me. Therefore, I have grown professionally and personally through their

opinions, ideas, and innovations. I have learned that incorporating different cultures increases

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the rate of marketing of our services as most customers tend to trust our organisation’s services

due to our employees who come from varying cultures. Treasuring different cultures have

reduced legal expenses, replacement of workers and absenteeism in our department hence, our

operations run smoothly. We have been able to get the best workforce which has supported

innovation in the ministry.

The personnel have created new services satisfying the markets’ needs because they

understand the diverse market exceptionally well. According to Trompenaars, & Turner (2011),

the best product development crew consists of people from various cultures. The ministry has

received good reputation for being a good employer because of recruiting individuals from

different cultures. Therefore, the clients have improved the level of trust on the services offered

by the ministry. Cultural diversity is a great idea to adopt in business, but it is also associated

with some challenges (Barak, 2016). Personally, I have experienced some of the difficulties in

embracing cultural diversity. The difficulties in implementing cultural diversity in organisations

include communication problems, resistance to change by some workers, challenges in

implementing cultural diversity policy and contradicting working style across the employees

which are some of the problems noted by Barak (2016).

Culture is passed from one generation to another through learning. However, people

within all cultures differ based on values, experiences, and preferences (Trompenaars, & Turner,

2011). There are cultural dimensions that are applicable worldwide and are seen in all aspects of

human life, including education, family life, and healthcare practices (Soares et al., 2007). There

are six types of cultural dimensions which include individual-collectivism which is an element

that identifies the degree in which people integrate into groups in society (Soares et al., 2007). In

a self-standing community, it is expected that individuals look after themselves; however,

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connections between them is loose whereas, in a collective culture, people create stable and

cohesive groups. Secondly, power distance, the dimension is where less powerful fellows of

society accept and expect an imbalanced distribution of power (Soares et al., 2007). Third,

masculinity-femininity, the aspect refers to gender equality in society. A feminine organisation is

where both men and women are given equal rights while in masculine society women are

considered less than men. Forth, uncertainty avoidance, it indicates the level of comfort with

situations which are unstructured. The unstructured conditions are unknown, novel, different

from usual and surprising (Soares et al., 2007). Fifth, long-and short-term orientation, it reflects

whether a society shows a realistic future-oriented or general historical perspective (Soares et al.,

2007). Sixth, indulgence versus restraint, this dimension pinpoints the degree in which an

organisation permits relatively free gravitation of natural and necessary human desire related to

having fun and enjoying life.

At my workplace, there are people with similar cultures as mine with the same education

level, age, gender, religion, and nationality. Interaction and communication between us are easy

and fast. There are also people of different cultures compared to mine. These people are of

higher social class, higher educational level, mixed race, different religion, and sexual

orientation. The differences make interaction with them quite hard communication is also hard

because we speak different languages. Organizational competitiveness and triumph depend on

the ability of a leader to manage cultural diversity in a workplace efficiently (Moran et al., 2014).

Therefore, as a leader, I had to develop solutions to help me deal with challenges in cultural

diversity. Some of the solutions to the problems arising from cultural differences include

involvement of all employees in formulating and executing cultural diversity policies as

suggested by Moran et al. (2014). The second approach involves promoting a sense of equal

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value by encouraging employees to express their opinions and ideas freely. Training employees

on cultural diversity is also an important approach in creating a culturally diverse workforce.

Four, promote team building and lastly communicating with all members of the ministry

efficiently and precisely (Moran et al., 2014).

Diversity in a business institution is significant to running prosperous businesses. Groups

of different cultures deliver critical analysis and better results, so leaders must organise and run

their firm in a way that it encourages diversity (Shachaf, 2008). There are various ways of

mitigating cultural differences in a workplace. For example, recognition argues that a leader

must recognise the cultural differences among the employees and celebrate these differences.

Managers should also treat all their employees fairly and respect every culture of the employees.

For example, a leader should not schedule a mandatory meeting on a religious holiday as it

demonstrates selfishness and lack of respect for the religion of its workers (Moran et al., 2014).

Thirdly, a business owner must first manage his or her behaviour and attitude towards other

different cultures, for example, the leader should know how to respond to various

communication styles. Fourth, managers should always asses all his or her employees and

recognise their contributions to the overall goals of the company.

Leadership styles are significant in running businesses successfully (Schein, 2010).

However, some specific types of leadership styles should be applied to the successful

management of cultural diversity (Schein, 2010). At my workplace, I use four main types of

leadership styles which include democratic leadership, where every member’s opinion is heard,

and a decision is made through consensus. The second style is pacesetting where I am always in

the front setting pace in implementing cultural diversity policies. Three, coaching and motivating

team building (Moran et al., 2014). I take into considerations all contributions of my workers.

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Finally, the respect strategy is where a leader respects all cultures of employees and treats the

cultures fairly (Schein, 2010).

Conclusion

Cultural diversity in an organisation contributes highly to the success of the body Leaders

should ensure that they have incorporated cultural diversity in their businesses by employing

workers from different cultural backgrounds. Many people of different abilities when put

together produce the best result ever and even come up with innovations that are of benefit to the

company. To ensure that there is maximum economic profit through cultural diversity; leaders

must know different leadership styles that enable them to tackle problems faced during

implementation of cultural diversity policies.

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Reference

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage

Publications.

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences

Routledge.

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.

Shachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts

on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information & Management, 45(2), 131-

142.

Soares, A. M., Farhangmehr, M., & Shoham, A. (2007). Hofstede's dimensions of culture in

international marketing studies. Journal of business research, 60(3), 277-284.Hofstede's

dimensions of culture in international marketing studies. Journal of business research,

60(3), 277-284.

Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (2011). Riding the waves of culture: Understanding

diversity in global business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

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