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Running head: DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Diversity Management

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DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT 2

When people of different ethnic backgrounds, age groups, religion, are brought together

to work as a cohesive unit, they bring about diversity at the workplace. For a business to survive

in a harsh and competitive global environment, there is a need to utilize the diversity available at

the workplace efficiently. Every organization should ensure that diversity management is part

and parcel of its culture. Diversity at the workplace is not about how people view themselves but

rather how their perceive their colleagues. Perceptions between workmates of different and

diverse cultures affect how individuals of an organization interact. For effective diversity

management, there is a need for supervisors and managers to effectively deal with

communication, change, and adaptability at the workplace (Darby, 2015). Organizations that are

successful set aside resources to deal with issues facing a diverse workforce.

One of the major problems facing a diverse workforce is poor communication. The

success or failure of an organization depends on effective communication. At the workplace,

communication between individuals is both done through verbal and non-verbal means based on

a common business goal. This may be internal; between employees and management, or

external, between company staff and suppliers, retailers, or customers.

For a diverse workforce, communication depends on how employees perceive business

communication based on their diverse backgrounds. The high-context and low-context cultures

between the East and West are quite common (Ang & Van Dyne, 2016). Employees from the

East believe in having spoken few words that have an important meaning as compared to West

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employees who believe in explicit information. As such, there is a need for employers to design

business communication to suit the needs of every employee.

Poor communication caused by a diverse workforce may result in lowered productivity.

Poor communication may be either oral or written and can adversely affect the performance of

an organization. Language barrier may result in the sending of vague messages or may lead to

rewriting documents that contain errors greatly affects the workflow in a company. The lack of a

clear communication policy at the workplace may lead to slow and inefficient business practices

(Velasco at al., 2016). Due to poor communication techniques, an organization may suffer from

decreased innovation. As such, a company's ability to handle important projects may be

compromised thereby leading to lack of innovation and crippling its operations. The capacity to

innovate is largely dependent on good communication. Lack of it decreases innovation. It is also

important to highlight that poor communication in a diverse workplace reduces employee

morale. This is because ineffective communication, results in reduced employee inspiration,

creativity, and productivity. Employees who also have poor business skills necessary for

communication lack the enthusiasm needed to perform their duties.

There are several ways in which poor communication in a diverse workplace can be

reduced. First, it is imperative to conduct a workplace diversity assessment. This ensures that a

firm is able to assess the obstacles that its employees face and in the long run help to come up

with a workplace diversity plan Sandal (2016). Second, it is essential to assign mentors to guide

employees who have poor communication skills and face language barriers. The mentor is

responsible for the employee's communication development. Third, having an open-door policy

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is essential to ensure that employees can seek guidance from top-level management on issues

pertaining business communication. Finally, it is imperative for employees, both Eastern and

Western employees learn from each culture available. In doing so, employees will be ble to

communicate and relate better amongst themselves.

References

Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.

Darby, F. (2015). Diversity in the Workplace. The ITB Journal, 4(2), 3.

Sandal, G. M., Van De Vijver, F., & Bye, H. M. (2016). Leadership approaches to diversity at

the workplace: Implications for employees' organizational commitment and well-

being. International Journal of Psychology, 51, 773.

Velasco, R., Villar, R., Lunar, R., & Velasco, V. (2016). Diversity in the workplace: Evidences

from gulf college, Oman. Journal of Asian Business Strategy, 6(4), 73.

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