Managing Multiculturalism and Diversity Reflective Journal 2022

STUDENT NAME
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION(S) |
MANAGING MULTICULTURALISM AND DIVERSITY
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

MANAGING MULTICULTURALISM AND DIVERSITY
Introduction
Diversity and multiculturalism management have gained much significance
these days within the organizational context. Many academicians and business
practitioners make constant research on effective ways through which organizational
culture, diversity effects, and overall performance can be linked together to create a
positive workplace environment (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). Given such premises, this
reflective journal will conduct comprehensive research on my course learning topics
including managing multiculturalism and diversity, culture and ethnicity, cross-
cultural communication strategies, diversity roles, and resource management. This
reflective journal will reveal how I feel about the aforementioned topics, how they
relate to my past experiences and their value for my future career as a business
professional.
Self-reflection and analysis
In literature, multiculturalism and diversity are commonly defined as a
behavioural pattern that promotes, appreciates and manages multiple identifies and
cultures while working in a confined sphere and community (Jackson & Vijver, 2018).
According to Leng & Yazdanifard (2014), employees in a multicultural environment
may feel low-self-esteem and isolated because of their national origins and race.
Therefore, managing such a workforce requires top executives and leaders paying
high attention to individual perceptions concerning to cultural diversity either through
formal or informal communication style or organizational structure. From my previous
experience, I can say that by integrating and supporting employee perceptions,
organizations can achieve desired goals as well as a positive workplace
environment. Personally, I belong to a background that gives more values to
traditional culture; therefore, I will emphasize on learning new ways through which
diversified workplace can be managed effectively. Since my course studies have
made me aware of various diversity management style, I would prefer giving more
importance to learning cross-culture communication techniques further.
Cross-cultural communication has evolved significantly into the strategic
management of the firms mainly due to growth seen in multinational companies
working across borders and with multicultural teams with the help of technology and
the internet (Menaka, 2018). Subsequently, understanding cross-cultural
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MANAGING MULTICULTURALISM AND DIVERSITY
communication strategies have become very substantial for contemporary business
practitioners and looking upon different cross-communication style is the only way
that can help them to manage workplace conflicts and language barriers in a
diversified workforce. The previous workplace I worked in had around seventy
employees out of which few were immigrants and had come from different locations,
following cultural values and religion unaware to many of us. However, my manager
followed some very effective strategies that helped him establish a good rapport with
the others by explaining most of the things without using any word i.e. by using facial
expressions, emotions, and non-verbal cues. Even my course learning taught me to
make clear and precise statements alongside making an eye-contact to avoid dual
meaning or ambiguous words. Now I feel that making things simpler and allowing
time to soak words while establishing cross-cultural communication can help us to
make other listeners understand what we want to say. Such learning has enhanced
my perspective towards cross-cultural communication strategies and now I can
efficiently respect and acknowledge people whom I communicate with.
Culture and ethnicity are two key terms repetitively used while addressing
global companies. In fact, as human beings, we generally resist anything different for
us and when such differences become conflicting, the workplace remains no
exception. Due to extensive growth seen in diversity in the workplace, I feel that
analyzing the culture and ethnicity of every individual is very important to mitigate
workplace conflicts arising due to ethnic identity and other unwritten principles in the
organization. According to Sharma (2016), ethnicity is a collective phenomenon in
which ethnic identity is referred to as individually experienced culture, race, sex,
identity, age, religion, and nationality. Earlier, managers used to deal with issues
associated with ethnic culture versus corporate, however, things have changed
remarkably and now they need to comprehend certain assumptions about diversity,
including what makes an individual unique to be valued (Sharma, 2016). After my
course weeks, I feel that people's perceptions attitude and personal values are given
shape by their racial, social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. Though I have
never faced ethnicity related issues in my previous life but would like to share one
experience where I encountered one of my office colleagues reacting adversely
towards few people in the office belonging to the minority group. Our human
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