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Cross Cultural Management Assignment and Case Study

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This report is aimed at critiquing an article that focuses on an important element of cross cultural management principles. The article as selected for analysis is “Workers happier in more diverse workplace”. This implies that the cross cultural management topic as selected for analysis is workplace diversity. Workplace diversity mainly implies the composition of employees within workplace that are from different cultural background (Barak, 2010). The concept of workplace diversity is highly emphasised in the context of 21st century globalised environmental conditions whereby knowledge of employees is given higher importance to achieve success, and diversity is regarded as an important strategy in promoting innovation at work place (Paludi, 2012).

The selected article also focuses on workplace diversity concept and it emphasises that employees from different cultural backgrounds at workplace are happier as compared to employees from similar origination. As the article focuses on the importance of maintaining cultural diversity at workplace, it has been argued that cultural diversity in terms of employee composition is crucial from the point of view of achieving success in the 21st century globalised environment conditions whereby companies are globalising and operating in cross cultural environment.

Critique of the Article

The article as selected for critique indicates that workplace diversity is an important way of ensuring happy workers at workplace. As per the selected article, it is identified that a research has been carried out by Deloitte and Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission on cultural diversity or managing employees from different cultural background at workplaces and the findings of the research indicates that workplace diversity is crucial in achieving happy employees. The research was performed with 1550 employees and it has been evaluated that the inclusion of workers from different cultural background has positive effect on their performance. This is mainly achieved in terms of reduction in the absenteeism rate and better employee performance ratings (Workers happier in more diverse workplaces, 2013).

Cross cultural diversity is an important concept essential for businesses in the 21st century to survive because corporate alliances and partnerships at global level are taking place at a rapid place. This necessitates the employees to work in different cultural environment, and it is therefore highly essential from the point of view of achieving organisation’s success (Jackson, 1992). The main benefit behind the promotion of cultural diversity in the workforce composition within workplaces is that it facilitates organisation with better possibilities of innovation and development of new ideas in doing organisational activities. Cultural diversity benefits groups in terms of better ways of undertaking assigned activities and the resulting impact is improved organisational performance (D’Almeida, 2007).

It is not only the improvement in organisational performance being possible from cultural diversity, but it also facilitates higher satisfaction of employees in the group and improved morale in accomplishing organisational goals efficiently. A more inclusive and diverse workplace is likely to increase the employee innovation level as indicated in the article, and this is mostly true because there are different attitudes and way of thinking available to a group in solving a particular problem. The minds of culturally diversified employees would produce different ways of solving a problem and thus, better solutions to organisational problems can be achieved. By ensuring cultural diversity, organisations can therefore attain competitive advantage and this is why most of the organisations globally have considered and are considering the inclusion of culturally diversified employees (Hoffmann, 2006).

Cultural diversity is therefore identified as important from the point of view of promoting innovation within workplace and it should therefore be highly emphasised for achieving positive results. However, the cultural diversity is mainly the result of rapid pace with which organisations are pursuing globalisation, types of cultural diversity in society, and personal cultural attributes (Tchibozo, 2012). An important point as indicated in the selected article is that the cultural diversity leads to economic benefits to the organisation. It is true that the benefits in the form of higher innovation on the part of employees, better employee satisfaction and higher organisational performance can be achieved from maintaining cultural diversity (Thyer, 2010). However, the attainment of benefits from cultural diversity at workplace is not an easy task as it is a highly complex process requiring managers to manage diversity within its workers (Daly, 1998).

The diversity in terms of employees from different cultural background is significant from the point of view of enhancing team collaboration. However, this attainment of efficiency at workplace requires the management to take active participation in guiding employees because it is a process that may create difficulties or hinders the growth of the organisation’s success (Debrah and Smith, 2001). There are possibilities that there may be difficulties in collaboration because some member may think that their culture is superior and others may have different perception. Thus, there are higher chances of clashes within the group members in respect to cross cultural teams, and this requires a proper management strategy in action in ensuring the efficient management of employees from diverse group (Parvis, 2005).

The article on happy worker from diverse workplace also suggests that the cultural diversity leads to an increase in the level of employee innovation to a greater level. The performance of survey with the employees in the three organisations lead to the identification that employees have wider feelings from the fact that diversity is maintained at workplace. This indicates that the employees can be motivated through maintaining diversity and they can therefore be encouraged in contributing positively towards accomplishing the main organisational goals in an efficient manner through their collaborative efforts (Kanfer, Chen and Pritchard, 2008). There is a positive relationship being identified in the article between the commitment to cultural diversity within workplace, and the success rate of workplace.

This relationship as indicated in the study is highly effective as it clearly emphasises the level of commitment needed in ensuring success in managing diverse people. As identified, diversity management is not an easy task because of higher chances of issues creeping in the process, and this necessitates the need for management to remain active all the time to ensure that each and every employee contribute positively towards attaining organisational goals. The role of management is to ensure that the personal clashes should not be allowed to take place in the process of managing culturally diversified people (Tjosvold and Leung, 2003).

The findings from the study as performed in the article indicates that the managers in an organisation can create an environment that is desirable from the point of view of achieving organisational success, but this requires the managers to ensure higher level of inclusivity and workplace diversity. This point clarifies that the management can create any form of desirable environment within workplace through maintaining inclusivity and thereby the efforts of employees can be guided towards any direction that ensures organisational success (Cornelius, 2002). It is therefore an important tool in the hands of management in guiding organisational success, as they can attain the sympathy of their culturally diversified employees through including employees from all categories and culture (Özbilgin, 2009).

The perception of employees towards the company’s diversity and inclusion policies is a determining factor in boosting their performance towards responding to customers and also in achieving higher level of team collaboration. This requires the management to create an image of diversity policy among its workers that motivates them in highly contributory while managing their customers. The customers are the most important assets in an organisation, and it is essential that the employees should ensure due diligent and care in satisfying them. This requires the satisfaction of employees first and it can be achieved by way of creating favourable diversity policy that includes employees from different cultural backgrounds and also maintains higher inclusivity (Tjosvold and Leung, 2003).

Conclusion

A critique as performed regarding the selected article on making workers happier by creating diverse workplaces indicates about various important aspects in relation to maintaining employee diversity within workplace. The management of culturally diversified employees is identified as crucial from the critique in fostering innovations within workplace and also in achieving better satisfaction level among employees. By way of ensuring sufficient workplace diversity and also maintaining inclusivity, the managers within organisation can create an environment that fosters higher innovation and thereby contribute positively towards accomplishment of the organisational goals in a most efficient manner. However, at the same time, it is also identified that managing a diverse workforce which includes employees from different background is not an easy task and it requires significant level of efforts from management to achieve success.

 

 

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