Importance of Cultural Diversity in Global Organizations

This paper discusses the importance of cultural diversity in the workplace and the challenges that come with it. It covers legal implications, demographic effects, ethical considerations, media for training, and recommendations for implementing a training course. The paper emphasizes the need for effective training sessions to improve teamwork and avoid discrimination. It also highlights the benefits of diversity training, including higher employee retention rates and improved recruiting.

FINAL PAPER

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Legal implications......................................................................................................................3
Demographics affect cultural diversity......................................................................................4
Ethical Implications....................................................................................................................6
Media which is best suited for training in a global setting.........................................................7
Recommendations for implementing the training course..........................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The cultural growth of the world has led to globalisation which resulted in a
disseminated and diversified workforce. Cultural diversity denotes the differences in
individual along with accepting them. These differences can be based on many things such as
age, gender, ethnicity, sex, social status and sexual orientation. Workforces in companies
which are culturally diverse tend to be more effective when properly managed and employed
(McClure, McGuire & Loftus, 2019). This is because, when the employees come from
various cultural backgrounds, they have different perspectives and are able to produce
creative ideas.
To properly engage such a workforce, it is important to create effective training
sessions that will improve the teamwork with the employees without widening the gap within
them with their differences. Such global trainings are immensely important in an international
organization as a culturally diverse workforce also gives rise to stereotypes and
discrimination, which can be turned into strong teamwork if trained properly.
Legal implications
The encouragement of cultural differences gives a business the opportunity to further
expand their horizons. The encouragement of employees coming from different cultural
backgrounds share their business practices and belief systems with the organisation so that
they can enhance the ability of the business in order to solve problems (Morgan et al., 2016).
However, at times, cultural diversity within the world of business can cause psychological
problems related to stress. By providing training related to culture and diversity to the
employees I can help the organisation to build a culture of corporate team where they
embrace their diversity and their differences are used as a benefit to the company.

Among the multiple number of benefits of diversity and cultural training the most
important thing is avoiding the legal issues which are awfully time consuming and expensive
for sure. State laws as well as federal law has made it illegal to discriminate against clients
and employees based on their gender, race, age, faith, sexual preferences or physical
disabilities (Wrench, 2015). Training the employees in the areas of culture and diversity will
help the organisation to avoid being sued or penalised because someone stupid has practiced
discrimination against someone else within the boundaries of the workplace which would
also harm the rapport of the company.
In 1965, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was introduced to
provide equal opportunity to all individuals of all culture, ethnicity and sex (Edwards &
McMahon, 2018). However, there is still a long journey to go through in order to ensure a
workplace free from the clutches of discrimination and also equality in employment. I need to
make sure that the training provided is not of bad quality; it is not done by the organisation
just to “check the box”. I need to focus on topics such as unconscious bias and ethics and
teach the employees the value of equality in the workplace. I have to make sure to provide
both diversity training and compliance training in order to properly educate the employees
about how not to behave in the workplace.
Demographics affect cultural diversity
There are many ways in which people are similar or different from each other.
Diversity may just be characterized by the personalities that varies within a unit of work such
as race, age, education, gender, functional background and tenure. Demographic diversity
focuses on visible and relatively stable diversities such as race, age, gender, physical
disabilities, religion and sexual orientation. For me as a trainer it is challenging to try to
manage diversity effectively. In 2008, more than 95,000 people documented an objection

asserting that they were segregated dependent on the ensured attributes (Hassan, 2017).
Obviously, this number speaks to just the most outrageous occurrences wherein unfortunate
casualties more likely than not got unmistakably unfair treatment to legitimize documenting a
complaint. It is sensible to accept that numerous occurrences of segregation go unreported on
the grounds that they are progressively unpretentious and representatives may not know about
irregularities, for example, pay separation.
I have to be very certain of the fact that the different demographics of the workers will
affect the discussions regarding cultural diversity of the employees trying to work alongside
different people from different cultural backgrounds. A practical model that could influence
talk of cultural diversity is the gathering of representatives during lunch breaks sitting with
each other tattling or sharing musings on a different associate belonging from another nation
who has an emphasize when he or she dresses or talks differently in contrast to the Western
moulds the majority workers in the workplace follow (Guillaume et al., 2017).
These various socioeconomic behaviours of labourers under one association could
prompt discourses in regards to the distinctions in cultural diversity within the work
environment. As a trainer I have to be aware that along with diversity I have to teach the
employees about various ethical considerations that are important factors for diversity
training. Acquiring a different outlook to new thoughts and viewpoints from all employees
comprehensively will touch off discussions of cultural diversity, yet it basically may be the
structure squares of building an increasingly successful and comprehensive overall
organisation.

Ethical Implications
Most examiners declare that a diverse workforce is a very commendable yearning.
Notwithstanding, cultural differences may offer ascent to issues of morality that could be
difficult for myself to determine. A workforce that is socially diverse may influence people
with different religious convictions (Trinh, 2015). There can be times when representatives'
convictions of religion conflicts with the decent variety arrangements of the association. I as
a mentor need to be ready to address such issues head on and explain that, whatever the
worker's convictions are, the representative has to regard the other people in the work
environment.
An air of incorporation where the women have open door for advancements from
male can produce some moral difficulties. In some nations, females are legitimately
subordinate to males. Female and male labourers from such nations might think that it's tough
to change in accordance to various, comprehensive workplace environment where males
report to female workers, and ladies involve top official positions. Hence, as a mentor I
would have to take care of these cultural sensitivities without crossing the boundaries of anti-
discrimination laws.
An association which desires to attain a socially diverse workforce must from
multiple pools of potential employees. Administrators may produce enthusiasm among
differing groups by posting open situations with worker assorted diversity systems or by
publicizing employment opportunities in non-traditional productions. Nonetheless, an
enlisting supervisor must hire the individual most qualified for those posts, paying little mind
to race, age, sexual orientation or national origin (Arda, Aslan & Alpkan, 2017). Employment
decisions taken in a situation where qualities assorted variety may create pressure between an
association's main objectives of diversity and equivalent business opportunity rules.

In certain cultures, specialists from the government anticipate that organizations
should give motivator instalments to speed up endorsements of solicitations, for instance,
variance applications and permits. However, government authorities might just see these
instalments as bribes that are prohibited by administrative anti-corruption laws. Damaging the
law may trigger common fines and criminal culpability (Williams, 2017). I as a mentor ought
to give anti-bribery training to the workers to explain the ways to deal with the solicitations
for commitments so representatives of all societies understand what satisfactory and
unsatisfactory conduct is under the legal system.
Media which is best suited for training in a global setting
Global Training for a culturally diverse workforce is necessary for every global
organization to function properly. Global training can be standardized in many aspects.
Standardisation in global training is a favourable option as it is both time and cost effective
(Noe et al., 2017). Standardisation can occur in two ways, when the same learning approach
is used for every topic applied to all the regions. That is, the method of the design and
delivery of the lesson would be the same. For instance, a single method like online learning
can be used where the language and the content for the lessons stay the same.
The second strategy can make use of a single learning approach for a single topic in
all regions. Therefore, each course will be standard over the entire organisation, be it local
and overseas. Each topic can have different delivery methods which would make designing
the courses more flexible (Bulger & Davison, 2018). Such approaches of standardisation
make the creation of content easier as one team from headquarters can supervise the whole
process of training. When the company has a time shortage, these are very useful as programs
for different regions can be designed together which saves time. Designing the same training
program for all regions also saves the cost of creating separate programs for each region.

The media best suited for training in a global organization with cultural diversity is E
learning. E learning can be regarded as one of the best media or way that can address and
explain to employees that come from diverse regions, different e-learning programs must be
started along with a global distribution plan. With the help of such a way, the management of
an organisation will have an easier way to minimize the cost and time of these training
sessions. Potential for e-learning along with its scalability are huge (Lillicrap, Otter & Haq,
2016). After developing a properly functioning course for learning, it can easily be offered to
the employees all over the world with a few clicks. For training to be successful, it is
important that the language used for e-learning must be localised for each region so that the
trainees are able to understand properly about the sessions.
Recommendations for implementing the training course
Developing a training program for a global organization with different cultures,
involve assessment of the needs of the team and then designing the materials that will reflect
the requirements of training along with delivering references and workshop materials that
will help to evaluate the efficacy made in the workshop.
● To initiate a diversity program for training, it is important to understand the
stakeholders and gather information about their needs and the changes in their
behaviour needed by them.
● Defining objectives from the gathered information in order to reduce misinterpretation
of miscommunication.
● Designing the workshop or training program with the objectives in mind will help
create a focused and effective training program. This can be delivered at separate
training sessions.

● A quiz at the end of each training session can increase the possibility of the trainees
gaining more information from these sessions (Rao, 2017).
While designing any training program, it should be considered that, the main problem
or obstacle that rises in ensuring if the message conveyed throughout the regions under the
company is the same as it has been received. It is important to understand that there are
different preferable learning methodologies that can be used in different regions for different
cultures. Learning approaches might work differently for different regions (Zimmerle &
Lambert, 2019). What is successful in one region for a topic, might not be beneficial for
another region. It is necessary that it is ensured that all the facilitators from different regions
are capable of properly delivering the courses.
Conclusion
Global training approaches do not always follow a specific or rigid set of norms. Such
training sessions are altered according to the needs of the employees. While choosing a
strategy to implement for global training, one should always consider three things like the
resources available, the learners who are the employees or trainees, and the role played by the
team of global training. The given assignment has aimed at explaining the importance of
cultural diversity in the workplace along with the challenges that come along with it. It has
discussed the possible methods and media for implementing training programs to make the
best out of a diverse workforce along with providing recommendations for creating an
efficient global training program for a culturally diverse workforce. Global organizations that
implement programs for diversity training that help to advocate diversity in the workplace,
usually have higher rates of employee retention, reduced lawsuits, and improves recruiting
and improved morals.

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