Emotional, Cultural Intelligence and Diversity

This article discusses emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and diversity in the workplace. It highlights the importance of recognizing and managing emotions, adapting to different cultural scenarios, and respecting the beliefs, values, behaviors, and attitudes of people from different cultures. The article also discusses the challenges and opportunities of cultural intelligence and diversity at the workplace, and the practical activities and discussions related to workforce practices. It emphasizes the importance of diversity at the workplace and the need to abolish discrimination.

Running head:EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
Emotional,Cultural Intelligence and Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
Part 1
The professional development workshop discusses and highlights on the topic of
emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and diversity. The model of emotional, cultural
intelligence together with the diversity is an essential step for the development of the ability
for dealing with the differences in the awareness for the effective understanding of the
reactions of individuals. Emotions are powerful source of energy behind the reactions of an
individual which helps in development of the ability to manage them (Argstatter 2016). They
are behavioral,physiological and psychological factors that are experienced towards a person,
an object or an event which tends to create the state of readiness. The concept of emotional
intelligence deals with the capability to recognize and manage the emotions of an individual
together with the emotions of the others. Emotional intelligence includes the capability to
harness and manage relevant emotions and engage in effective application of it on problem
solving and thinking (Njoroge and Yazdanifard 2014). The concept of cultural diversity deals
with the ability to adjust and work effectively in situations that are culturally diverse. It can
be defined as the capability of an individual to adapt to different cultural scenarios and
respect the beliefs, values, behaviors, and attitudes of people from different cultures. The
three important dimensions of cultural intelligence include the intercultural engagement, the
cultural understanding, and intercultural communication. The concept of cultural intelligence
is closely linked with the concept of diversity (Desmet, Ortuño-Ortín and Wacziarg 2017).
Diversity can be defined as the acceptance and understanding of the uniqueness within each
and every individual and recognition of social, cultural differences of an individual. The
workshop illustrates the influence on the behavior and the attitudes of an individual in the
workplace in the lights of these factors stated above. Emotions are experiences that represent
changes in the behaviour, psychological and physiological state of an individual (Njoroge and

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
Yazdanifard 2014).The paper illustrates one of the most discussed topics in the context of
workplace, the challenges,te threats and the opportunities of cultural intelligence and that of
diversity at workplace. The cultural concepts and intelligence are the patterns of assumption
and deep level values that concerns the societal functioning. Furthermore culture takes
diversified forms for embodying the plurality and the uniqueness of the individuals
constituting the societies and the humankind. Diversity is the inclusion of the individual that
represents the variety of national origin, color, social economic stratum, religion and sexual
orientation (Desmet, Ortuño-Ortín and Wacziarg 2017). The paper highlights the notion of
cultural diversity with the understanding of both the challenges and opportunities in the
business environment.The paper furthermore illustrates the practical activities of the
diversities related to culture with a creative touch and ends up with a final conclusion of
personal insight regarding the summary of the accomplishments.
Part 2
The workshop on Emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and diversity include
certain practical activities and discussion on some of the related factors influencing
workforce practices. The aim and the objective of this workshop are to target the meaning of
the term globalization and the related threats and opportunities of the globalization on the
individuals at the workplace. The workshop targets to illustrate the connection between the
globalization, cultural intelligence, and emotional intelligence. Globalisation is the procedure
of worldwide interconnections in the growing sphere of activity. The procedure of technology
and democratization has a large impact on the cultural and the emotional intelligence in the
modern workplace. This is because the forces of globalization tend to encourage divergence
of culture that affects the goals, operation, and policies of a workplace. The concept of

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
cultural convergence and divergence is one of the practical activities in the context of
globalization and cultural aspects within an organization.
According to the definition of UNESCO, cultural diversity is one of the common
heritage of humanity. It is the necessity of the human kind just like bio diversity is for the
nature. The social and cultural diversity at the workplace has both positive and negative
outcomes. Some of the factors contributing to inherent diversity includes gender,race, sexual
orientations, religious heritage, age, nationality and many more. Furthermore, factors
contributing to acquired diversity includes citizenship, marital status, educational background
and personal experiences, political affiliation and socio economic strata. In the activity of
week 8 various surface level and deep level diversity factors were identified. In the action
group, I noticed several types of diversities,mostly relating to gender and race. Women have
been the victim of constant discrimination and marginalization in case of workplace
environment and benefits in work. Some of the deep level diversity I believe I share in
common with my other group member is the values and believes of my culture. Though I
respect each and every culture in the globe, I believe in the differences in my respective
cultural believes. One of the members of my group had issues with his attitude, he used to
judge and the comments of the people from another cultural background. Hence he was being
isolated to one group member. I have observed that diversity in the workplace differs from a
nation to another. The right to equality and the freedom from any sort of discrimination is the
fundamental right by the UDHR, though very few nations are there who actually follow and
grant equal rights to all. The gaps in the gender related equality are still prevalent even in the
majority of advanced economies. Work discrimination as researched and analysed by my
group is something which is ongoing in the current era. There lies various factors over which
an individual gets discriminated and challenges the notion of diversity at workplace. Women,
people with disabilities, aged people, migrants from other nation, Lesbian gay transgender

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
and bisexual people and the indigenous community people are some of the main targeted
groups for the violation at workplaces. Some of the direct consequences of discrimination is
degrading focus and productivity,loss in patronage, poor working atmosphere and much
more. Some of the indirect effects include depression, job stress, negative impact on society
and the company image at the global market. Some of the relevant ways the discrimination
can be eradicated and tackled includes building of the concept of diversity from the inside
out, bringing out the men in the fight, educating and teaching the employees about
discrimination and harassment, establishing networking initiatives, emphasizing the inclusion
of the opposite sex, establishing clear education criteria, abiding by the law and propagation
of the right to equal opportunities and non discrimination. The importance of diversity at
workplace contributes to the achievement of the workplace or the business in the potential
level of success. Leaders and managers are responding well towards the importance of the
workplace diversity. But there lies various challenges and obstacles in the reaction towards
diversity at workplace. These blockages generally come in the form of active management
resistance and due to the absence of relevant self awareness and soft skills. Furthermore
irrespective of relevant changes in the demographics at the workplaces, many of the senior
position managers misuse their positions to threaten the diversity within the workplace. One
of the major challenges towards the diversity at the workplace is the lack of relevant soft
skills. Hrad skills generally tend to involve skills that are learned and are often reflected in
the level of education or training of the leaders. Soft skills then again, are regularly elusive
and troublesome to measure or learn. Pioneers who see how to utilize relationship building
abilities and spur their teams,especially in a period of diversity, are the individuals who tend
to emerge. It takes mindful authority to understand the practices that reflect on themselves, as
well as the effect on their groups, clients and at lastly their organization's prosperity. The top
soft skills that are essential to manage a diverse team includes effective communication skills

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
together with active listening and body languages, leadership skills with diplomacy, decision
making and managing, interpersonal skills, personal skills like emotional intelligence,
empathy and enthusiasm,professional skills like time management, knowledge management
and awareness of equality rights. Another important factor is the diversity fatigue. It happens
when firms endeavor to convey diversity preparing or social change programs however
experience obstruction. Another contributing element is an over-accentuation on diversity
makes a few people question in the case of contracting choices are still in light of legitimacy.
The figure below illustrates the different levels of diversity.
Figure:1 Source: (Clayton 2010)
While working in an organization, I often have witnessed incivility associated with
some of the primary dimensions of the diversity. Some of the common factors upon which
most of diversity related incivility takes place in the workplace are women, race, color, and
disability. Talking about my experience, I witnessed how the women in an organization
where subjected to lower payments and they were victims of discrimination. The right to
equal pay and equal opportunities at the workplace is the fundamental right of each and every

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
human being. I got shocked to notice how the male dominated management snatched a
promotion opportunity from a woman and gave it to another man. Women have been the
victim of workplace discrimination for long. Now the time has come to revolt. I witnessed
how the women put down her papers of resignation the very next day after this horrendous
selfish act by the business organization. The managers were not at all cool with the situation
since they thought the women will accept her fate just like the others and will remain a silent
victim of the discrimination in the workplace. If I were the manager I would not have
encouraged these types of actions and discrimination in the workplace since I believe losing a
loyal and reliable and a productive employee is a big loss for the organization.
Part 3
Workplace diversity is essential for every business organization. The traditional
notion of the concept of workplace diversity refers to the gender, race and the religious
backgrounds of the individuals working at the organization. I believe the concept of
workplace diversity in the current era is all encompassing. Apart from these variables and
factors, further considerations are made upon skill set, educational background, experiences,
age and more. While consideration over the skillset and experience is feasible and I think it is
important for the organization to recruit candidates with these filters for choosing the best
candidates who can boost up the productivity and be beneficial for the organizational profit.
To me, there lie several advantages of having a diverse workforce. Some are the variety of
perspectives and opinions, the growth of the employee rates, unity in the diverse strengths,
increased company brand name. Furthermore since each and every person is unique in their
own way and each one carries their own talents and individual set of skills,it would be
beneficial for all the employees to work at the place with diverse work environment since
they will get the opportunity to know, learn and analyze new pieces of knowledge and skills

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
from the others. Discrimination in the workplace is a very bad practice that should be
abolished. Each and every human being is entitled to equal respect and opportunity for a good
and happy life with freedom from any sorts of discrimination at the workplace on the basis of
any socio and economic factors. It is only when an organization will be able to successfully
propagate diversity at the workplace with a healthy working environment. It is extremely
essential for a business organization to identify the relevant factors contributing to the
workplace discrimination and abolish them. Furthermore challenges of the diversity at the
workplace should also be addressed and proper implementation of diversity and respect
towards each and every religion,culture and their values should be encouraged by the
employees. It is only when an organization can accelerate in its ladder of success.

EMOTIONAL,CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
References
Argstatter, H., 2016. Perception of basic emotions in music: Culture-specific or
multicultural?. Psychology of Music, 44(4), pp.674-690.
Ashkanasy, N.M. and Dorris, A.D., 2017. Emotions in the workplace. Annual Review of
Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4, pp.67-90.
Clayton Sr., CB 2010, 'A new way to build the business case for diversity based on the
numbers: The Diversity Profit Equation (d/PE)', Diversity Factor, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 1-10.
Desmet, K., Ortuño-Ortín, I. and Wacziarg, R., 2017. Culture, ethnicity, and
diversity. American Economic Review, 107(9), pp.2479-2513.
Njoroge, C.N. and Yazdanifard, R., 2014. The impact of social and emotional intelligence on
employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace. International Journal of Information,
Business and Management, 6(4), p.163.