Managing People's Cultural Diversity

The report highlights the challenges and opportunities faced by Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd in managing a culturally diverse workforce to access educational services with equality. The organization encounters challenges such as harassment, biases, discrimination, and backlash based on age, gender, disability, religion views, and religious background. However, it has developed policies and rules to manage workplace diversity, leading to opportunities like mutual respect, fairness, equality, empowerment, encouragement, and recognition.

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE
Managing People
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

Introduction
Business organizations along with educational institutions have a culturally diverse
workforce that includes both employees and students. Failure in managing cultural diversity
effectively results in discrimination in terms of workplace recruitment, selection, opportunities
along with harassment and bullying. Challenges encountered due to diversity thereby, hampers
the psychological and emotional well-being of the individuals. However, if managed
appropriately, it helps in maintaining mutual respect and fairness.
This report highlights the challenges and opportunities encountered by Aotearoa Institute of
Technology in managing a culturally diverse workforce in order to access educational services
by ensuring and promoting equality.
Challenges encountered in managing culturally diverse workforce
Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd. is committed to promoting equality and tackling
discrimination thereby ensuring access to education services for all the people. The organization
does not want to compromise with the quality education due to workplace diversity. Inequality is
encountered in terms of age, race, gender disability, religious beliefs and political opinion
(Patrick & Kumar, 2012). The organization has developed suitable policies and legislations in
order to prevent discrimination. There are some major challenges encountered by Aotearoa
Institute of Technology Ltd while managing diversity in the workplace. As commented by
Barack (2016), harassment and bullying are most commonly noticed in a diversified workplace.
The individual coming from a background with less preference are harassed within the
workplace. For example, some employees are not given appropriate changes at the workplace

such as promotion due to diversity. Moreover, due to diversity, the employees might less likely
to let the voice of other employees express their opinion. Diversified workplace culture results in
encountering prejudice or negative cultural stereotypes (Harvey & Allard, 2015).
Discrimination is also another significant aspect that is encountered by Aotearoa Institute
of Technology Ltd while managing diversity. As a result, the entire population was unable to
receive equal educational service thereby, hampering their progress. Additionally, most of the
employees blame the victims only for facing harassment as they consider everything as the
victim’s fault. Alongside, the employees from the different background also encounter strong
negative reaction defined as backlash by the majority of the people in the workplace. Such
negative reactions hamper the psychological and emotional state of the individuals. The
aforementioned challenges thereby prevent the individuals from accessing suitable facilities and
progress.
Opportunities in managing culturally diverse workforce successfully
Along with the major challenges encountered by Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd,
various opportunities can be achieved if the challenges are managed appropriately. As mentioned
by Kirton & Greene (2015), mutual respect is the most important thing that can be achieved by
managing the workplace diversity. Mutual respect for all the individuals within the same
environment helps in creating a strong bond along with positive relationship and working
environment. Moreover, mutual respect for each other also helps in building a sense of
acceptance and fairness within the working environment. Therefore, if Aotearoa Institute of
Technology Ltd is able to manage the challenges faced due to discrimination, the organization
will be able to create a steady relationship between the employees, the students along with

establishing a healthy working environment. Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd will be able to
mitigate discrimination in terms of age, sex, gender, marital status, disability and political views.
One of the major opportunities of maintaining cultural diversity is ensuring equality
(Singh, Winkel & Selvarajan, 2013). The policies and legislations developed by Aotearoa
Institute of Technology Ltd help in ensuring equality within the organization. This will help in
equal access of educational services within the institution without compromising the quality of
service. Effective management of workplace cultural diversity helps in encouraging the
engagement of the individuals present within the environment (Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich,
2013). Due to empowerment, engagement and suitable opportunities, the performance of the
individuals within the organization is enhanced. In order to motivate the individuals, Aotearoa
Institute of Technology Ltd recognizes and appreciates the effort and hard work of the people.
Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd does not discriminate in acknowledging the performance in
terms of disability, age, gender and political opinions. Therefore, Aotearoa Institute of
Technology Ltd. achieves better performance by managing workplace diversity effectively.
Conclusion
In this report, it can be concluded that Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd encounters
challenges due to workplace diversity that is managed appropriately thereby, ensuring potential
opportunities. The potential issues faced by Aotearoa Institute of Technology Ltd due to the
culturally diverse workforce are harassment, biases, discrimination, backlash based on age,
gender, disability, religion views and religious background. However, Aotearoa Institute of
Technology Ltd has developed policies and rules that helped to manage workplace diversity

thereby, giving rise to potential opportunities such as mutual respect, fairness, equality,
empowerment, encouragement, and recognition.

References
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Chrobot-Mason, D., & Aramovich, N. P. (2013). The psychological benefits of creating an
affirming climate for workplace diversity. Group & Organization Management, 38(6),
659-689.
Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2015). Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and
exercises. Pearson.
Kirton, G., & Greene, A. M. (2015). The dynamics of managing diversity: A critical approach.
Routledge.
Patrick, H. A., & Kumar, V. R. (2012). Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges.
Sage Open, 2(2), 2158244012444615.
Singh, B., Winkel, D. E., & Selvarajan, T. T. (2013). Managing diversity at work: Does
psychological safety hold the key to racial differences in employee performance?. Journal
of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86(2), 242-263.