Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

This study discusses the impact of cultural diversity in the workplace, focusing on health beliefs, family patterns, communication styles, and death practices. It explores how different cultures influence these aspects and provides examples of how workplaces can accommodate diverse employees.

Running Head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
The term ‘cultural diversity’ refers to the assimilation of a group of individuals who
belong to different society or culture. Cultural diversity is determined in terms of the
difference in language, religion, ethnicity, race, age, gender and sexual orientation of people
(Payne, et al., 2018). With the advent of globalisation organisations started welcome people
from different cultural background as employees. The purpose of this study is to discuss
cultural diversity in the workplace with reference to the four component of culture- health
beliefs and practices, family Pattern, communication style, death and dying practices.
Four elements of culture
Health beliefs and practices are very important element of culture. Several research
has been conducted on the health beliefs and practices in the culture of England. The studies
have revealed that, unlike the people of the developing and Asian countries, people in Britain
do not nourish fatalistic, social and supernatural beliefs about health issues. The Islamic,
Asian migrants celebrate their supernatural beliefs regarding menstruation, pregnancy and
birth and death through different kinds of rituals. For example, the Islamic migrant women
who are pregnant may not agree for a regular check-up as according to their beliefs this may
herm the baby inside the womb (Barak, 2016).
The impact of this health beliefs and practices on the workplace can be explained with
the help of an example. Companies in England, that provide free health check-up services to
the employees may point out that due to the fasts during Ramadan months the Islamic
migrant employees are falling seek and this in turn is curbing their productivity. In this case,
they may advise Islamic migrant employees to consume nutritious food and stay healthy. The
Islamic migrant employees may not follow such advices as this may prove that he or she is
not fully devoted to the almighty (Li, 2017).

2CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
The workplaces in England should understand the emotions related to the religious
beliefs and provide facilities like ‘work form home’ to the Islamic migrant employees who
are unwell during Ramadan months.
Family is an essential element of culture.There exists the concept of nuclear family
and gender biasness in the traditional culture of England. The rate of gender biasness has
been decreased due to the vibe of woman empowerment. The gender biasness that has it roots
in the cultures of England, has an inverse relation with the generation gap. In other words, as
the generation gap increases gender biasness decreases. Previously the native women were
seen as dependant poor creature in England. The same was true for the Asian, South African
as well as the Islamic immigrants in England, but with the advent of the tech savvy
generation of 21st century, all such conventional concepts have been diluted. This can be
explained with the help of an example. The construction companies in England, which used
to avoid recruiting female employees, have now started to employing native female engineers
as well as female immigrants from different cultural background (Rodríguez-Pose & Hardy,
2015). In order to remove the taboos regarding the recruitment and equal salary of female
employees of different communities the government has now implemented laws that will
secure the rights of female workers like- receiving equal remuneration and appreciation as
compared to the male colleague of the same rank, receiving paid leave during pregnancy
(Lambert, 2016).
Communication style is another significant element of culture. Communication style
largely depends on the language and symbols. People from different cultural background use
different symbols and language for communication. This may become a barrier I the process
of interaction, in case of a culturally diverse workplace. In order to bring uniformity in the
communication process and remove all obstacles regarding language and symbols, the
workplaces in England give the immigrant employees pre-job as well as on-job training,

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which include English learning classes. All the workplaces should also establish anti-bullying
cell for those who are not familiar with English language (Meyers & Vallas, 2016).
Death and dying practices are also essential element of culture. Different cultural
groups perform different kinds of rituals in case of deaths. There are huge difference between
the rituals performed by Asian immigrants in England, Islamic immigrants and the native
people of England. The workplaces in England need to understand the emotions related to the
rituals of death which varies depending on the culture of the migrant employees and respect
the diversity by providing facilities like leaves or bonus (Moon, 2016). Thus, the workplaces
in England should assist the immigrant employees to perform the rituals of their own culture
when they face the deaths of any person from their family or extended family (Al-Jenaibi,
2017).
In the conclusion, it can be said that, the cooperation as well as coordination on the
part of the employers are highly recommended to maintain a healthy environment for the
assimilation of the culturally diverse people.

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