Understanding Organizational Cultural Diversity Admission Essay Help

Organizational cultural diversity is a collection of views, values, and/or perspectives held by a variety of individuals. It is also a structure of perception, evaluation, belief, and action. This helps to establish a connection between various groups and their respective environmental environments. (2006) Christopher

Every corporation has a central culture that guides its activities, while its diverse sections observe a variety of cultures. Nevertheless, the organization's cultural variety does influence its functioning in some way. Cultural diversity in organizations results in a variety of methods for performing organizational activities, some of which may conflict with the mission or vision of the company. Therefore, it is essential for managers to comprehend the extent of cultural diversity within their firms. Over time, leaders of companies, particularly managers, strive to reconcile or even alter the organization's heterogeneous culture to conform to their preferences.

This can only be accomplished if the manager has a comprehensive and in-depth awareness of the various cultures inside his firm. The culture judged appropriate by the manager is then utilized in decision-making processes, and this culture influences the management styles of various challenges. Some parts of culture left behind by the manager and still retained by employees may be an impediment to organizational development and diverse styles of conducting different activities. A manager is therefore essential to have a comprehensive awareness of the various cultures in his or her business so that no feature of a particular culture is overlooked when he or she decides to harmonize them to create an acceptable culture that will govern the organization's operations. (2006) Christopher

Recognizing Cultural Difference

In the majority of firms, organizational culture contributes significantly to excellence, and leadership is responsible for both creating and managing that culture. Understanding and comprehending the cultural variety of an organization is crucial for consultants and managers since it influences productivity, development, and learning at all organizational levels. Cultural variety can either limit or expand the capabilities of an organization. The manager categorizes the varied organizational cultures as those that can facilitate change and others that are so inflexible that they can impede the process. Keeping this in mind, the manager may ensure that the culture that can impede the process of change gradually dissipates over time, while retaining the culture that can initiate and facilitate change. As a result of the global dynamic and everyday innovations, organizational transformation becomes a defining characteristic of organizational culture. An organization must be sufficiently dynamic and adaptable to accommodate any change that may occur.

This is only achievable if the organization's culture is also adaptable and willing to abandon their customary methods for conducting various operations. The long-term survival of any organization is largely decided by its culture, especially in unpredictably evolving industries, which is another reason why the manager must comprehend the diversity of organizational cultures. (Sally, 2003) By recognizing cultural diversity, a manager in an organization can assess why any change he proposes is not implemented or is done slowly. He is also able to determine why a project fails after it has been launched, and this knowledge can assist him in changing the organization's culture, which he perceives as a liability since it creates barriers to change, barriers to acquisitions and mergers, and barriers to diversity. This would entail maintaining and enticing people whose cultural affinities contribute to the organization's growth, while driving away those whose culture does not inspire, reward, and challenge them. Understanding the cultural diversity of a company is crucial for a new manager since it enables him/her to successfully provide direction, especially when it differs from what people are accustomed to.

The management can determine if the existing cultures will cause employees to be hesitant or passive in accepting the change, or if they will be active and willing to accept the change. He/she can determine the employees' perceptions of the company's culture. In addition, the manager is able to identify instances of divergence between the organization's values, mission, and cultures. (Sally, 2003) The gap may be caused by staff cultures that prohibit them from providing inventive customer service as required by the organization's goal statement. Some cultural ideas undermine employees and their capacity to perform, accept any other culture that may come their way, and alter their customary methods of carrying out various responsibilities. By gaining an awareness of cultural variety, a manager can avoid oversimplification or conflating culture with its associated values, atmosphere, and company philosophy. Attempting to alter these characteristics without comprehending the cultural diversity that underlies them would be useless, as culture determines these variables.

The manager can resist defining cultural diversity as merely a human feature of the organization that impacts humans and learn that cultural diversity has an impact that extends beyond humans, as it influences and affects the organization's goals and purposes. The manager is also able to comprehend that culture diversity cannot be manipulated in the same manner as other organizational factors. This is because the varied cultures are imbedded and controlled by the organization's members; as a result, they may wind up controlling the manager rather than him controlling them. The manager's knowledge of the organizational culture's diversity enables him or her to devise methods that can be utilized to transform it in an effort to accomplish strategic results. What ought to be preserved is preserved, and what ought to be transformed is transformed. It is essential to understand that diversity has significant effects on the organization's operations. As a result, the manager is able to draw a distinction between the elements that are significant and those that are of little value to the business, and to place greater emphasis on the former. The combined body of knowledge brought by the organization's cultural diversity, which appears to be functioning according to the organization's aims and objectives, may represent substantial challenges for managers attempting to implement changes in various sectors of the business. This is due to the fact that the pool of collective knowledge shared by employees from many cultures conceals the flaws of those cultures and leads one to assume that it is beneficial for the firm.

Employees develop their own standards and adhere to them regardless of organizational culture. Through his or her knowledge of the organization's cultural variety, the manager is able to delve deeper into the subcultures that may have been developed by employees in their various divisions and which are detrimental to observing the overall organizational culture. It should be known that deviations from the functional organizational culture result in conflicts of interest, and managers will work to ensure that cultural diversity does not lead to undesirable outcomes. Understanding the cultural variety of the organization is also crucial due to the fact that the organization's goals are superior than any individual culture. If cultural diversity does not contribute to or drive the achievement of the organization's objectives, it is degraded and the manager must overlook it. (George, 2002) Since the primary function of organizational culture is to differentiate a company from its competitors and to provide its members with a sense of identity, a manager must determine whether cultural diversity in his or her firm has detrimental or good consequences on this function. In support of this, a questionnaire detailing the perspectives of ten managers regarding the diversity of corporate culture is provided below.

Questionnaire

Exist cultural diversity features within your organization?

Yes 10 No 0

Consider it essential to comprehend the cultural variety of your organization?

Yes 10 No 0

Why does it matter to you? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Is it necessary to harmonize these cultures in order to capitalize on the diversity's strength and fulfill the organization's goals? Explain… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Diversity in your organization's organizational culture has it had any negative effects?

Yes 10 No 0

Which effects are these? Divergent interests Obstacle to the implementation of several alterations within the organization. After working at a company with a varied culture, would you wish to work in such an environment in the future?

Yes 5 No 5.

Referenced Source

CQ: Developing Cultural Intelligence at Work, London: Stanford University Press, 2006. Christopher, P., and Ang, J. Soon.

Cultural Diversity Fieldbook, New York: Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, 1996. George, F.

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Issues and Strategies, by Henderson George, London: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2002.

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003, Sally, J. Walton.

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