Essay Sample on 7 Key Aspects of Cultural Diversity: Respecting Differences, Empowerment & Max Potential

Introduction

The concept of cultural diversity also applies to multiculturalism. There are seven key aspects that are central in defining multiculturalism, such as recognition of various cultures, respecting differences, and valuing what the culture provides. Cultural diversity encourages the contribution of various groups alongside empowering people in strengthening themselves and achieving their maximum potential (Kendal et al. 2015). Cultural diversity is important since our workplaces, schools and country is increasingly made up of different cultural, ethnic, and racial groups. We learn from each other, but it also needs an understanding of one another. Learning about other cultures assists us in understanding the various viewpoints in our world. At the same time, it helps us in dispelling negative stereotypes and individual biases regarding specific groups. Cultural diversity assists us in recognizing and respecting our ways of being that are not necessarily ours.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The goal is to ensure that during our interactions with other people, we build the bridges to respect, trust and understanding. Diversity makes our nation a more exciting place to live in. People from various cultures contribute to new ways of thinking, new knowledge, different experiences, and language skills. With many organizations embracing globalization in their business, cultural diversity is also becoming a major challenge. Therefore, the training of workers in the global sector presents new techniques for senior leadership to manage ethical issues within the work environment. Workers are highly likely to transfer the training to the companies provide the climate leads to a learning organization. Effective leaders and companies are those recognizing inclusion and diversity as important elements of business operations (Rice, 2015). To this end, the presence of cultural diversity training program includes retention of workers and allowing the organization to establish competitive advantage among its rivals. This paper examines the legal implications in the creation of training courses, explains the impacts of diversity among workers, the ethical implications, possibilities of standardization of training, and offering recommendations for the implementation the training course. The presence of an effective training program helps in maintaining a positive culture and helps workers to understand the importance of a diverse workforce.

Legal Implications in Creating Training Course that Deliberates on Culture

During the formation of a training course discussing culture, it is imperative that legal implications are taken into account. Therefore, researching laws and regulations before the implementation of training programs prevents time-consuming and costly legal issues that could arise. In the federal regulations, laws preventing discrimination of workers based on their religion, race, physical disability or age are considered. To this end, ensuring that workers are trained in diversity and cultural differences helps in preventing future costly lawsuits. It is important that the management understands the disparities in cultural values, including understanding the different holidays' dates. These kinds of cultural disparities must be taken into account during the development of the training course because they affect the behaviour and outcome of a worker's output in a company. Ensuring that an organization complies with state and federal laws governing equal treatment is the responsibility of upper management. When a worker feels discriminated against and treated unfairly, there are possible legal consequences for the organization. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prevents organizations from discriminating against workers for any reason. Whenever there are allegations of discrimination in a company, and they are proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be true, there are huge financial penalties for the company in question (Feldblum, & Lipnic, 2016). Notwithstanding the cultural disparities among workers, a company must offer fair and equal opportunity for all workers to advance their careers through effective training.

How the Demographic Diversity of Employees Affects Discussions on Cultural Diversity

The employees' diverse demographics will impact the discussions about cultural diversity by workers seeking to work with people with different experiences and from diverse backgrounds. Even though diversity training does not change an individual completely, it can increase awareness, imparting knowledge and educating workers on ways of accepting differences among fellow workers. Companies utilize diversity training in maximizing the best potential in their workers. At the same time, organizations also seek to break the barriers that every worker faces to ensure they work collectively and productively as a team (Dobbin, Schrage, & Kalev, 2015). An example of the way discussion of cultural diversity is affected is shown by workers discussing over a lunch break, gossiping and sharing their views about another worker speaking a different language. These types of diverse worker demographics under a single organization could result in discussions about the differences in cultural diversity in the workplace environment.

Offering diversity training in the workplace assists the management whenever they face challenging issues which arise among workers. Whenever workers receive training on cultural disparities in the workplace, the company benefits in the form of a productive workforce. This is because the company overcomes related biases to create motivated and effective teams. At the same time, these companies develop in expansion range of new ideas provided by diversity and strategic marketing on the ways products are proposed and perceived (Dobbin, Schrage & Kalev, 2015). The company also realizes benefits from corporate identity within the workforce that is reputable for fair practices. Whenever companies have different demographic diversity, it leads to an innovative culture, retention of top workers, and broadening of the consumer base. The presence of open-minded to new ideas and outlooks from all workers will only make the debate of cultural differences hotter. However, cultural diversity is the building block towards the creation of an effective and more inclusive worldwide company.

Ethical Implications for Consideration

Alongside the workers' diversity, there are ethical implications for consideration when making decisions and working with a diverse group of people. Due to the idea that every person has a varied viewpoint about ethics and culture, it is paramount to consider these disparities because they affect how decisions are made in a given company. Some examples of ethical issues for consideration include gender, business practices, hiring decisions, and religion. A culturally diverse company has many individuals with varied religious beliefs, and it could present barriers that conflict with the diversity policy of the company. The management must have training on ways of handling these kinds of issues towards ensuring all workers show respect to one another and respect each other's beliefs. In some nations, female and male employees have equal professionalism. Women also occupy top leadership positions. Other countries still consider women subordinate to men and restrict them to lower positions (Stainback Kleiner, & Skaggs, 2016). These kinds of gender issues must be considered by the company's management to ensure they do not violate any laws against discrimination which hinder the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion policies. In hiring or recruiting workers, a manager must hire one who has the best-required qualifications for the position, regardless of the race. At the same time, issues with diversity could lead to tension between the diverse goals of a company and the guidelines provided in the equal employment opportunity. There is a need for training on anti-bribery to all workers to ensure they understand the acceptable behaviours under the law. In other cultures, the government agents require organizations to offer cash incentives for the expedition of services including applications and permits.

Standardization of Training for all Locations in Globalized Organizations

Even though there are barriers when handling workers training globally, the standardization of these procedures in all locations is possible. There is a need for new organization guidelines that must be written with regards to the cultural diversity that all workers must include in their daily business operations and practices. Some of these policies include hiring of workers and their behaviours and conducts that are enforceable by all workers. The creation of awareness about cultural differences by offering training workshops or yearly computer-based training for all workers helps in alleviating differences. It also helps in identifying solutions to internal issues that develop in the work environment. There is also a need for a clear method and system in place for workers to seek assistance when they encounter discrimination. Ensuring that workers are accountable for violating set standards helps with standardization of global practices (Alon, Jaffe, Prange, & Vianelli, 2016). On the same note, the implementation of a successful cultural training program improves the workplace environment among workers and increase overall organizational productivity. Depending on the size of the training budget and needs of an organization, there are different ways of offering standardized training in global companies.

The Most Suitable Media to Utilise

The best method to utilize is E-Learning. Earlier, there was no internet connection, and the only means of training was through face to face learning or training courses. Presently, training is achievable and spread to different workers because of the internet, and this saves on speed and money for the company. Some benefits of using this training technique are its reduced travel time, learners having control over specific elements and less social interaction times. Developing a cultural diversity training course is needed for workers to improve their skills, attitudes and knowledge that they apply in work performances. In any organization, having the ability to proper training to work with diverse workers cannot happen within a night. There are different social norms, customs and communications among nations. The provision of appropriate training increases the awareness of workers to work with each other regardless of their disparities (Alon, Jaffe, Prange, & Vianelli, 2016). This also underlines the importance of cross-cultural organizations safeguarding their daily operations and avoiding violation of laws that could easily cover a diverse global workforce. Training on workforce diversity allows workers to establish healthy relationships and reduce inappropriate acts such as discrimination or bullying to occur within the workplace environment. In the determination of the formation of a training program, the management must look at various issues.

Recommendations for Implementing the Training Course

The management should examine the training needs: This is the first step because it involves the identification of performance issues such as communication barriers when working with people globally. The training needs are also dependent on the assets and resources of an organization. A company with the highest capital levels will likely provide these training needs compared to those with minimal capital.

Establishing and defining the learning objectives: The management can achieve this through the S.M.A.R.T goals. These objectives include setting customer complaints to decline by 20% within a year. These...