With an evolving global workforce, the ability to adapt to and embrace cultural diversity in the workplace, remains an ongoing challenge necessary to tackle, and an opportunity for organizations to thrive in the market. This field research paper will focus on exploring the issues and the benefits of cultural diversity, intercultural relationships and communication in the workforce. The use of data collection will be used in this paper along with discussion from interviewing a supervisor in a non profit organization. By utilizing specific concepts from lecture content, this paper will provide thorough research of the chosen subject, and describe alternatives to any identified issues.
Often, issues surrounding communication are …show more content…
Patrick and Vincent R. Kumar research the issues and challenges of diversity in the workplace, specifically the world of Information Technology. Their data and information collected however can be used for various organizations around the globe that are willing to embrace diversity and implement new ideas or solutions to recurring challenges in the work setting. Patrick and Kumar incorporate a questionnaire that is divided into six components, that determine how much of an impact diversity has within the IT organization. The study found that, “[t]o improve corporate culture, organizations need to include diversity as a cultural value in its members. The most prevalent strategies adopted to achieve this objective were by unleashing creativity and performance”. (Patrick et al., 2012). By the data collected from employees of the organization, it is evident that people believe in Hofstede’s low power distance, as they believe that the most effective strategies of incorporating diversity include, ensuring that employees can utilize their skills and efforts to the best of their abilities. Along with that, employees also thought that increasing morale and productivity were the best ways of enhancing workplace diversity. Some of the most prevalent issues and/or challenges that the employees described, include, discrimination and prejudice. (Patrick et al., 2012) indicate that the most effective ways of increasing awareness about workplace diversity was by, “communicating effectively, and listening attentively and asking questions about what one did not understand”. Other components of the study include both age and gender - important factors that can have an effect on embracing diversity in the workplace. The study found that, “there were significant differences between men and women professionals toward the organizational strategies for increasing inclusiveness.” Some of these include, “Men preferred to accept overseas