Effects of Cultural Diversity on organizational performance

What is Cultural Diversity

People all around the world are divided by several factitious categories and partitions such as identity politics, around the world in which context that they feel that the community have been attacked, bullied and discriminated against. Whether every entity in the world, every government, every society and people believe or not, people are full of diversity in terms of gender, social class, ethnicity, race, language, abilities and disabilities, religion, sexual orientation, needs, nationality, political ideology, citizenship status, family composition, cultural background, income, occupation, locality, etc  (Lin, 2019). Many developing countries all around the world do not possess a strong education system for the people who live in their countries. Hence, the people themselves should re-focus on what the cultural diversity could bring to this world and how people could together despite the diversities and work together to make use of the opportunities available to each of the countries (Donatus, 207)

Image I – Cultural Diversity (Source: www.patimes.org)

 

As a fact, the Cultural diversity plays a major role in the productivity of a corporation in this thriving business world. The workplace is a platform where individuals from different backgrounds come together to work and share an organization’s goals and objectives. In most of the multinational organizations, individuals from all around the world who possess diversified cultures gather around for achieving the company goals (Cherian, et al., 2020)

 

Advantages of Cultural Diversity for an organization

Multicultural organizations have an advantage in attracting and retaining the best talent in several organizations. For example, the capabilities of women and minorities offer a wider labor pool. Organizations that are able to attract and retain qualified minority group members and keep faith with them through fair and equitable career advancement treatments, gain competitive advantage and gain high quality human resources dividends. Further, a multicultural organization is better suited to serve a diverse external clientele in a more competitive global market. Such organizations have a better understanding of the requirements of the legal, political, social, economic and cultural environments of foreign nations (Alozie, 2020)

Disadvantages of Cultural Diversity for an organization

Despite the advantages related to diversity for an organization, many researchers have argued that the number of disadvantaged related to diversity for an organization may be comparatively high. Firstly, the cost factor may come as the most prioritized element under this segment when recruiting employees to match the diversity of an organization. Diversity does not fare as well under conditions of uncertainty and complexity which may lead to confusion and frustration. Diversity can make it harder to arrive at an agreement on a particular course of action, and can result in negative dynamics and cultural clashes that can create work disadvantages for women and minorities. Higher turnover and absenteeism are special problems identified with multi-cultural organizations (Velten & Lashley, 2018) 

 

One of the best example for company which has become the dominant of the market with stiff cultural diversity could be identified as the Coca-Cola Company. This is a multinational company which has located its offices all around the world and they believe that the Diversity is one of their main values of the company. Further they also believe that the Cultural Diversity has become a main element for the success and to be the number one in the market (Coca-cola Company, 2021).

 

Image II - Cultural Diversity at Coca-Cola Company (Source: www.topicinsights.com)

 

Conclusion

The challenges from an increasingly diverse workplace require a search for new ways for managing behavior. Traditional paradigms that overly focus on efficiency and profitability may not be adequate to understand the dynamics of the multi-cultural organization. More emphasis on the current trend toward non-hierarchical, decentralized and flat organizational structures will be a positive step forward 

 

References

Alozie, O. E., 2020. Diversity V Multiculturalism Advantages And Disadvantages Of Workplace Diversity. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 10(1).

Cherian, J., Vilas, G. B. & Pual Raj, V., 2020. The role of Cultural Divesity and how they impact work team perfoarmance. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), 11(9), pp. 11-22.

Coca-cola Company, 2021. Coca-cola Company. [Online]
Available at: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/shared-future/diversity-and-inclusion
[Accessed 16 8 2021].

Donatus, A. I., 207. Cultural Diversity: Implications For Workplace Management. Journal of Diversity Management , 2(4).

Lin, C., 2019. Understanding Cultural Diversity and Diverse Identities. 1 ed. Hong Kog: University of Hongkong.

Velten, L. & Lashley, C., 2018. The meaning of cultural diversity among staff as it pertains to employee motivation. Research in Hospitality Management, 7(2).