Managing Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

This research focuses on managing cultural diversity in the workplace and its impact on organizational performance. It discusses the benefits of cultural diversity, ways to manage it, and the importance of developing cultural competencies. The research aims to provide knowledge and guidance for organizations to create a positive and inclusive work environment.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

TOPIC: Managing cultural diversity in the workplace.
INTRODUCTION
Overview of Research
Diversity introduces as identifying, knowing and accepting the individual differences
irrespective of race, gender, physical ability, class etc. Cultural diversity is quality of the
different culture as opposed to global monoculture, akin to the cultural decay and monoculture. It
is related to having the various cultures respect differences to each other. It imputes that the
people use to be confirm with regard to that e others than a person is different. In this, cultural
diversity supports an idea that each person can make positive and unique contribution to large
society (Ang and Van Dyne, 2015). At workplace, cultural diversity is when the organisations
are open to recruiting people from different backgrounds. When organisation hire and sustain
diverse people then it brings about various advantages to form and staff members. Foxes Café
Lounge is coffee shop with the beans that roasted through lads. Its coffee taste is good and
supply to several other stores. This coffee is work on expanding its business at international level
for enhancing sales rate. There is a need to this Coffee house to resolve its equality and diversity
issues before its business expansion.
Background of Research
The cultural diversity is when the people differences and represented with in community.
Diversity at workplace is necessary for staff members because this manifests in developing better
reputation for an organisation, enhanced profitability for employees. In Foxes Café Lounge,
embracing diversity increase its working culture and it drives to business success. This is
inclusion of diverse perspectives and experiences that develop empowerment culture and foster
innovation, create new ideas and economic development (Cascio, 2015). The diversity at
workplace develops the rich flow of the ideas and has potential to enhance the innovation as well
as creativity. This can helpful in improving the financial performance of an organisation. The
diverse perspective develops potential for the problem solving in better manner in workforces
which are diverse culturally. In workforce, diversity can be competitive benefit because various
viewpoint can be facilitating the creative approaches to the problem solving. It enhances the
innovation as well as creativity that leads to the better performance of company.
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Significance of Research
This report is based on managing cultural diversity within workplace. It is most necessary
concept and there is a need to organisation to focus on this for making the business environment
positive. In an organisation, people belongs to the different culture and their values are differing
so it is necessary for an organisation to focus on develop the common culture which every
employee can follow easily and attain the set objectives. It provides the basic knowledge and
increase skills for conduct an investigation regarding the cultural diversity in an effective
manner. It gives the proper guidance to perform research activities in a systematic manner for
getting the positive outcomes. On the other hand, this research helps in find the gap in an
investigation which need to be faced. It provoked through gap that left unfilled through
substantial research work that has been completed on the impact of culture diversity over
business performance of an organisation (Laroche, 2012).
Research Aim
The research aim expresses an aspiration or intention of research study. This is mainly
summarising in single sentence to attain at of an investigation. Researcher should assure that
research aim should be phrased and specific in such a manner that this is possible to determine
when this has been attained. The main focus of research aim is to gaining the long term basis
outcomes. Achievement of the research aim gives answer to research question.
The main aim of this research is “To determine impact of cultural diversity on
organisational performance”. A study on Foxes Café Lounge.
Research Objectives
The research objectives divide the research aim into many parts and also address each of part
separately. It explains concisely what an investigation is trying to be attain. They mainly
summarise accomplishments an investigator wishes to attain by project and gives proper
direction to study.
 To determine concept of cultural diversity.
 To examine the benefits of cultural diversity at workplace.
 Recommend ways through which company can manage the cultural diversity within an
organisation.
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Research Questions
The research question refers to question that an investigator projects sets out to be answer.
Selecting an effective research question is necessary component of qualitative and quantitative
investigation. the research will need data gathering and also analysis. Research will need
collection of data and analysis. Answer to research question will assists to address research
question.
 What is cultural diversity?
 What are benefits of cultural diversity at workplace?
 What are the effective ways by company firm can manage cultural diversity in company?
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is related to review of the critical points of current knowledge on
particular area. The literature review is kind of the review article. It is kind of scholarly paper
that mostly represents current knowledge consisting the findings and methodological
contributions to specific topic. It can mainly have designed to give overview of the different
sources that explored while investigating specific topic. The main purpose of literature review is
to convey learner previous facts as well as knowledge that established on topic. This part gives
an analysis about cultural diversity and its impact on the organisational performance.
Cultural diversity
As per opinion of NICOLE HOFFMAN (2017) it has been stated that Cultural diversity
is an existence of variety of the ethnic and cultural groups within society. It is variety of
multiculturalism of group and organisation. It consists the various belief systems, social
structures and also strategies culture use for adopting life conditions in different part of world. In
an organisation, people belong to the different culture and sometimes they face some
complexities to understand people and also work with the different environment. When the
people belong to different culture or background are work together then they are open to differ
ideas and the viewpoints. It helps the people to hearing as well as sharing the various
perspectives or presenting ideas.
When the diversity is managed in a proper manner then staff members of Foxes Café
Lounge are subject to the diversity or cross culture and employees feel validated. It helps in
providing the opportunities to staff members to work with the people which bring various
viewpoints and skills. It assesses them to identify that each employee is important for the
different reasons. They feel valuable to employees and helpful in make improvement in their
moral as well as promote the positivity at workplace (Logan,2012). In this changing market
situations, cultural diversity is also growing at rapid scale. People with different cultures
comprises of different regions, opinions etc. In business sector, different types of people come
from different regions and it is crucial to have knowledge of several culture so that it is easy to
develop positive relationship with each other. Moreover, focusing on this concept of cultural
diversity leads to establishment of cooperation as well as coordination. Furthermore, there are
various kinds of diversity such as religious, race, age etc. At workplace, without adapting
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different cultures it is not possible to achieve goals & objectives. Main benefits of cultural
diversity are that it helps in achieving of future development goals, implementing of strategies,
and influence decisions of every individual at larger scale. This has been analysed that with
people of different cultures and regions comes together, it is easy to access to opportunities and
new ideas are generated easily. Also, another benefit is that it assists in solving problem of and
creating of new productivity easily. Employers have realized that workforce diversity provides
both material and intangible benefits. In order for employers to reap the benefits of cultural
diversity in the workplace, they must communicate their commitment to addressing the
challenges of a diverse workforce. There are many other ways through which cultural diversity
can be supported such as by interacting with people, engaging with them, understand other
people point of view and extracting literature as well as learning from other cultures, etc. So, to
survive in market it is crucial to understand and adapt with cultural diversity so that it is easy to
engage and achieve objectives within period of time. Also, it is analysed that it is necessary to
focus on cultural diversity at every area such as education, corporate sector, personal life etc.
Organisations such as Nike, Adidas, Ted X, etc. Employers in market have realised that if
diversity is not adopted it is not possible to engage with society or community in proper manner.
They have also created many campaign to support cultural diversity in most effective manner. In
this fast moving world, it is crucial to engage with every people on basis of which it is easy to
grab new knowledge as well as opportunities.
Benefits of cultural diversity at workplace
From viewpoint of Kristina Marti (2019), it has been stated that Diversity at workplace
can enhance ROI, foster productive working environment and innovative ideas. In cultural
diversity, organisation hire the staff members from different background that consists culture,
race and religion. When Foxes Café Lounge hires and also retain large number of employees
then this brings benefits to company and staff members. In this, each employee are working
together for attaining specific objectives within given period of time. At workplace, cultural
diversity enhance creativity between team and also capabilities to have diverse solutions to
particular issues. With addition to that, with the fact of role that globalisation has played in
influencing various operational activities of the business firm. For effective dealing with
respective competitors of workforce, management of business enterprise hires individuals from
various regions which helps company in analysing various dynamics of its environment. By
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joining hands with various culture employees, it enables management of firm towards creating
new idea to conduct respective operational activities in a business firm. There are some
advantages of cultural diversity mention below:
Minimize employee turnover- Foxes Café Lounge embraces the cultural diversity would
entice large number of candidates for vacant job positions. High qualified and educated
candidates which have the experience of diversity at workplace may feel that diverse
organisation is progressive. Bringing in light excellent management of business firm, it helps in
firm to attain effective coordination between respective departments of the firm and creates
healthy working environment in organisation. It helps business firm to decrease its employee
turnover rate which enables lesser fluctuations in an organisation and helps in effective
implementation of various policies as per trending market demands. When a firm hire from
diverse set of the potential staff members then they are likely to recruit best of industry.
Enhance productivity- The diversity can enhance creativity between teams and have
diverse solutions to particular issues. In this, research on innovation and creativity has been
showing value of exposing people consistently to experience with many views and perspectives.
Firms encourage the diversity at workplace and it inspire all the staff members to perform high
ability. By providing up of effective motivational techniques to respective employees of the firm,
it helps management of the firm to extract best of staff’s productivity and also helps in optimum
utilisation of resources of given company. Higher authorities of the firm focuses on extraction of
maximum output with investment of minimum output. Ultimately enhanced productivity of
employees in an organisation shapes respective efforts been produced in firm towards
completion of pre decided goals and objectives effectively within provided time framework.
(Patrick and Kumar, 2012).
Brings innovation- In the fast changing economic environment, those forms which
cannot innovate quickly to keep up then they will struggle to success. The culturally diverse
workforce does not bring any kind of differences and they develop the new way of the thinking
that can be cut by harmful impact of group think a conformity. Under the sub heading of
recruitment of cultural diversity, various managers or leaders of the chosen firm gives free hand
to respective employees working in work structure to take part in planning process of the
company. It enables adoption of various innovate approaches in respective planning and decision
making processes of the firm and helps business firm to maintain its respective goodwill for a
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longer period of time. In addition to this, diverse teams are likely to generate the ideas and also
creative solutions to issues.
Reflects positively on reputation- Under this, Foxes Café Lounge hire and motivate
employees from wide range of the backgrounds are gain reputation for being better employer.
The current consumers feel valued to Foxes Café Lounge and increasing organisational
productivity. In context to this, diverse collection of experiences and skills permit an
organisation to give better services to consumers globally because it can understand needs of
consumers in a better manner. It helps in boosting up of moral of respective employees working
in an organisation, as company hires staffs from various cultures and manages them effectively
providing them with equality of treatment. In chosen firm, managers provide clear vision
towards specific job roles of various employees working in an organisation. It enables firm to
utilise its valuable resources in effective manner and avoids unproductive activities in an
organisation and contributes towards promotion of growth of the firm (Podsiadlowski and et. al.,
2013).
Improvement in company sales- Under this, Foxes Cafe Lounge, by hiring individuals
from various regions containing different cultural diversity, respective business firm is able to
conduct its operational activities effectively. Managers and leaders of the firm provides effective
motivational techniques to respective employees in an organisation which helps in establishment
of better coordination in various activities of the company. In context to chosen organisation, it is
being analysed that by proving to excellence in company’s operational activities, it helps in
building up better trust of company’s employees towards policies and attains effectiveness in
bringing up of new changes. Company is able to produce more output with lesser investments of
raw materials, this enables business firm to carry out more profit margin and deliver its
respective product or service are reasonable rates without hampering its quality.
Recommend ways through which company can manage the cultural diversity within an
organisation.
Developing the cultural competencies result in ability to be understand, communicate and
interact with the people across the different culture. Providing the information promptly and
accurately to better work and also performance level of team. It is specifically necessary when
project is mainly troubled and requirement to take the corrective actions. Maintaining as well as
managing the cultural diversity is not limited to be progressive for company. To develop solid
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team network, of all members require to be understand each other. The organisations strive for as
well as promote the diversity among staff members. They are mainly hire workers of various
races, genders, and genders to bring the diversified experience in job roles. In context to do this,
this is necessary to recognise, realise as well as acknowledge difference other the culture hold. It
has been recommended that company should provide the training to the staff members so that
they can aware about the different culture and also work with them. In a workplace, people with
different background are working is natural but each individual is different from one another
therefore for company must maintain the cultural diversity within the organisation. Today more
different cultures are working together, for that need of cultural competency training is essential
to avoid problems related with cultural differences in the organisation. Company should develop
cultural competence among employees, so that people can be able to understand, can establish
communication effectively, interact with others across cultures, and work with varying cultural
beliefs. Company can use cross-cultural team-building as this will provide potential advantages
like promote innovation, build interpersonal relationship among workers of various cultural
diversity in the workplace. Thus company should focus on managing cultural diversity so that
people of different background in the organisation must not feel left out. Other than this, there
are some recommendations regarding managing the cultural diversity mention below:
Communication- It is necessary for company to developing the positive communication
among the employer and employee. The people from different culture vary and they feel not
comfortable with each other. People from the different culture to provide the bad news to
supervisor.
Time- The culture is differing in how they mainly view the time. For an example, they
mainly differ in balance among the family life and work. The workplace mix among the social
behaviour and work also. On the other hand, some other differences consist perception overtime
and exact meaning of deadline. In context to this, various perceptions of the time can mainly
cause the better misunderstanding at workplace mainly with deadline and scheduling. The time
perceptions underscore significance of the cultural diversity at workplace.
Treat employee as an individual- Avoid to making an assumptions regarding staff
members from various background. Look at every employee as individual and also judge failure
and success on merit of person rather than attributing the actions to background.
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Hiring- To develop the diverse workforce, this is necessary to hire the talent from variety
of the backgrounds. It needs the leadership and others which make the hiring decisions in order
to overcome the bias in assessing talent and interviewing. If company can be break by bias and
also hire qualified people, those with right education and diverse the workplace that should be
natural outcomes.
Be open minded- In this, recognise as well as encourage the staff members to determine
one own experience, culture and background are not with value to company. Look for the ways
to be incorporate diverse perspective range and also talent into the efforts to attain organisational
objectives.
Conduct the cross- cultural training- The appropriate training is tantamount significance
when dealing with various culture at workplace. To make improvement in the workplace morale
and happiness, it is necessary to organise the cross- cultural training. Main purpose of the
training is to be overcome the cultural challenges at workplace. The way, individuals will get to
know the each other and also educate themselves regarding different cultural beliefs. It assures
that staff members know about expectations and way to treat at workplace. This assists to
overcome language barriers that might be occur and hiring people from various cultures. Other
than this, training includes all business areas but for employees of various cultures. Mentioning
the things such as time, general courtesies and discussion during the meetings are better way to
begin this training.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Methodology is defined as the theoretical and systematic investigation of different
methods which used to area of survey. It is particular process that used to determine, process and
examine the information regarding topic. Methodology chapter permits reader to evaluate
critically overall reliability and also validity of study. This process will help researcher in
chosen, process and also examine appropriate data about specific topic. This section of research
provides the techniques and tools to data collection and analyse. Research onion is considered as
the most necessary methodology and it is developed through Saunders in year 2007 (Rockstuhl
and Ng, 2015). The Saunders research onion mainly illustrates stages consists in development of
research work. It provides the detailed explanation of stages of research process. This is mainly
gives effective progression by which research methodology can be designed in significant
manner. Different components included in research onion mention below:
Research philosophy
Through this, researcher can have clarified different number of strategies used in the
research process. Along with this, there are two philosophies which are interpretivism and
positivism. Both are helpful in doing investigation systematically.
Justification: According to current study, positivism research philosophy will be used as
it is based on the quantitative research method and also provide the detailed analysis regarding
particular subject area. The positivism research philosophy helps in analysing the viewpoints of
different authors.
Research Approach
Research approach is mainly related with searching investigation type. Inductive and
deductive are introduced two important types of research approaches. Inductive approach of
research is related with formulation of the hypothesis and searching outcomes (Spaaij, 2013). On
the other hand, deductive approach is another kind of approach that mainly works on the specify
hypothesis.
Justification: In this present research, deductive research approach will use through
researcher because it is based on the quantitative research method and helpful in analyse the
collected data significantly. The advantage of using this approach that deductive approach gives
detailed information about the cultural diversity at workplace in an effective manner.
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Research strategy
The research strategy is helpful in analyse objectives through using the specific research
methods. This layer of the research onion aids in analyse research objectives through using the
effective methods.
Justification: Under this, survey will be considered as research strategy. Its main focus is
on single contextual environment. It is helpful in collecting the data related to specific subject
area. Through using the survey, researcher can develop different questions related to equality and
the diversity so that effective information can be collected and get the positive outcomes
effectively.
Research Choice
It consists mixed method, multi method and the mono method. In this, mixed method
comprises of quantitative and qualitative outcomes.
Justification: This report is based on the quantitative research method because it provides
the facts and figures regarding the particular subject. so that positive outcomes can be examined
(Thomas, 2015). Benefit of using the qualitative method is that it provides the rich information
on the individual cases and obtain accurate information.
Sampling
Probabilistic and non- probabilistic are two different sampling method. For selecting
sample size of current study, random data sampling method is applied through researcher and
select 40 respondents. The main reason of using the random sampling method is that it gives
equal chance to the selected respondents so that they can give their opinion. Employees of
company are main respondents which have proper knowledge about the workplace and cultural
diversity.
Data collection and Analysis
Data collection is useful process used by researcher for collecting and also measuring the
data about variable of interest in systematic manner. It helps in answer to the research questions
and examine outcomes. Primary and secondary are consider two useful methods used by
investigator for collection of reliable and detailed information. Both methods of data collection
provide relevant information related to specific area. the primary method of data collection
provides the new and fresh information regarding the particular subject area. It consists the
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different sources for an instance survey, observations, interviews and others. On the other hand,
the secondary method of data collection provides the existing information from different sources
for an instance articles, journals, internet sources and some other sources.
Justification: There will be primary and secondary method both used. From primary
method, data and information will have collected by developing questionnaire (Yoder-Wise,
2014). On the other hand, for conducting literature review part, secondary method will be use by
considering different sources like books, articles, internet sources etc.
Thematic analysis will be applied for analysing proper data about current investigation.
Along with this, this method of data analysis makes interpretations for getting the positive
outcomes.
Time horizons
It is related to time frame of investigation. In conducting the present investigation, there
has been cross- sectional time horizon used because it provides the time frame on the basis of
activities in an investigation. It helps in completing the activities on the basis of specific time
period.
Ethical consideration
The ethical principle is part of normative theory that mainly defends or justify the moral
judgement. It is necessary for researcher to follow all the ethical principles while conducting an
investigation. The ethical principle consists informed consent, integrity, confidentiality,
truthfulness, anonymity and others. The researcher is responsible not to disclose the personal
information of participants in front of anyone. There is a need to obtain the full consent from
participants prior to study.
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REFERENCES
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Cascio, W. F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
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Logan, W., 2012. Cultural diversity, cultural heritage and human rights: towards heritage
management as human rights-based cultural practice. International journal of heritage
studies. 18(3). pp.231-244.
Nederveen Pieterse, A., Van Knippenberg, D. and Van Dierendonck, D., 2013. Cultural diversity
and team performance: The role of team member goal orientation. Academy of
Management Journal. 56(3). pp.782-804.
Patrick, H. A. and Kumar, V. R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges.
Sage Open. 2(2). p.2158244012444615.
Podsiadlowski, A. and et. al., 2013. Managing a culturally diverse workforce: Diversity
perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 37(2).
pp.159-175.
Riccucci, N., 2018. Managing diversity in public sector workforces: Essentials of public policy
and administration series. Routledge.
Rockstuhl, T. and Ng, K. Y., 2015. The effects of cultural intelligence on interpersonal trust in
multicultural teams. In Handbook of cultural intelligence (pp. 224-238). Routledge.
Spaaij, R., 2013. Cultural diversity in community sport: An ethnographic inquiry of Somali
Australians’ experiences. Sport Management Review.16(1). pp.29-40.
Thomas, D. C., 2015. Cultural intelligence. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-3.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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FERGUSON, E., 2019. Starbucks Corporation’s Organizational Culture & Its Characteristics.
[Online]. Available through: <http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-company-
organizational-culture>.
Hoffman, N., 2017. ADVANTAGES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE.
[Online]. Available through: <https://global-lt.com/cultural-diversity-workplace/>.
Martic, K., 2018. Top 10 Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace. [Online]. Available through:
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workplace-infographic-included>.
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