Cultural diversity

Running Head: CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAY                        1
CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAY                                2
ASSIGNMENT 2: CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAY
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Issues Related to Cultural Diversity of a Team Leader in the Workplace    3
Communication Barriers    3
Stereotypes and Prejudice    4
Less Trust    5
Productivity    5
Overview of the Initiative    6
Strengths and Limitations of the Initiative    6
Strengths    6
Limitations    7
Effectiveness of the Initiative from Perspective of Mitigating Cultural Diversity Issues    7
Educating the Managers on Cultural Diversity    8
Creating Inclusive Workplace Policies    8
Clear Communication    9
Creating Mentorship Programs    9
Analysing the Initiative Based on Social Identity Approach    10
Social Categorisation    10
Social Identification    11
Social Comparison    11
Conclusion    12
References    13
Introduction
The quality of diverse and different cultures across a particular area or country is called cultural diversity. It is opposite to global monoculture. It refers to the diversity of cultures among people and the respect of each culture towards the other. It is opposed to the homogenisation of cultures. The term cultural diversity means the variety of cultures among human beings.
It is the variety of human societies in a particular region, or across the entire world. It distinguishes one person from the other. The factors that collectively create cultural differences are gender, race, age and values. Cultural differences also manifest in dress, language and traditions. Often religious differences are also considered as diversity in cultures (Mousa, 2017).
Often people face negative stereotypes and prejudice for this diversity on various occasions. People are looked down upon or mistreated for their cultural differences. They are misunderstood and ignored for their different cultures and languages. They are treated unfairly compared to the majorities.
This paper discusses the issues related to cultural diversity of a team leader in the workplace, overview of the initiative, strengths and limitations of the initiatives, effectiveness of the initiative on the perspective of cultural diversity issues and analysis of the initiatives based on social identity approach.
Issues Related to Cultural Diversity of a Team Leader in the Workplace
Communication Barriers
Cultural diversity in the workforce leads to unique and diverse opinions and increased innovation. It provides new approaches towards problem solving. However, often there are issues related to cultural diversity in the workplace. International businesses face communication barriers among the workers due to this diversity. The differences in the style of conversations and accent problems create misunderstandings among the international clients (Campos & Kim, 2017). The language spoken by the employees of a particular region can only be understood by the people of that area.
The international and diverse organisations ask for cultural sensitivity from the employees. There is a strong need for interpersonal skills. This leads to misunderstandings and conflicts in the workplace. The people require more time to understand and cope up with the culture of the workplace. Some gestures of the culturally minor groups are considered as offences, which are committed by them even without realising. There are differences in perspectives among the people, which enhances the conflict (Ng & Sears, 2020).
Stereotypes and Prejudice
The culturally minor people are often stereotyped and looked down upon in the workplace. Their colleagues refuse to cooperate with them, as they are culturally different from the majority groups. They use different stereotypes and excuses for not cooperating and working with the minorities. Some people are specifically vengeful against some particular religion or community and they show their grudge whenever and wherever possible.
These minority employees are left out in the working sectors and they are ignored by the other colleagues. They are often harassed and discriminated against, which create fear of retribution. They are stereotyped based on their dress and accent. Thus, these culturally minor employees suffer from inferiority complexes and mental hazards.
They feel themselves to be incompetent among other employees. The majority groups do not let their voices be heard and instead, they suppress them. They are prejudiced against the culturally minor class, as they believe themselves to be superior (Shore, Cleveland & Sanchez, 2018).
Less Trust
The cultural minorities are often treated unfairly in the workplaces compared to the majority groups. The higher authorities favour the higher classes better than the minorities. In case when a problem arises in the workplace, the minorities are unnecessarily harassed and held responsible. They are not let to raise their voice while encountering problems. They are mistreated and mistrusted by the employees belonging to the higher classes. For example, the Asian people often feel insecure and mistreated around the other people in their workplaces and are scared to raise their voice when they face problems.
The minor classes are not supported by their employers (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). They are not given equal benefits such as promotions and rewards even after performing well in the corporate sectors. They are not found to be equally trustworthy to allocate job roles of high responsibilities. This creates a sense of complexity and inequality among the workers in the workplaces, which affects the balance of the work environment.
Productivity
The practice of discrimination between the employees in the workplace based on culture, leads to a suffocating and painful experience for the culturally minor groups. The discrimination of culture and prejudice against the minorities results in causing negative effects on the productivity of the company. This unhealthy conflict lowers the standard of the overall work efficiency of the employees. The diversity of culture is important for the success of the business.
Nevertheless, cultural clashes often destroy the balance of the environment and decrease the morale of the employees. The productivity of the employees is minimised due to cultural bias. As a result, this causes negative effects on the employees and their satisfaction level is affected. This hampers the reputation and image of the company. Cultural bias may cause immense losses to the business as it decreases the productivity of the employees, altogether (Ramji & Etowa, 2018).
Overview of the Initiative
To overcome...