Reflective Journal: Managing Multiculturalism and Diversity

This reflective journal explores the critical aspects of managing multiculturalism and diversity in the workplace. The author reflects on key concepts such as culture, ethnicity, cross-cultural communication strategies, diversity roles, and resource management. The journal draws upon personal experiences and course learning to illustrate how organizations can foster positive workplace environments through effective diversity management. It emphasizes the significance of understanding and appreciating cultural differences, implementing cross-cultural communication techniques, and strategically managing resources to mitigate conflicts and promote inclusivity. The author concludes with a strengthened understanding of the importance of diversity and a renewed confidence in navigating multicultural workplaces, referencing examples of successful global companies that prioritize diversity management.

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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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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resource manager later provided him with requirements and laws which our
company followed concerning diversity management to mitigate cultural conflicts.
The above example shows how diversity and resource management
framework helps in addressing issues within multicultural firms. Moreover,
globalization has made many workplaces desire success and economic
development by enabling interaction among people belonging to diversified
backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, and locations. Nowadays, organizations need
diversity than ever before as people no longer prefer working in an isolation or
confined area rather prefer becoming more innovative and creative (Babalola, 2013).
According to me, although workplace diversity requires management giving
appropriate attention at every level, still, resource management must undertake it
critically to focus upon people management with a strategic approach. Moreover,
giving value to diversity and a diverse workforce is considered to be morally correct
alongside making economic sense to the organizations. This I can say because most
of the successful companies operating today such as IKEA, Apple, Samsung,
Facebook, etc follow key principles of effective management that reflect the
improvement in the workplace culture comprising culturally diversified people. Such
organizations usually follow diversity management starting from identification of
diversity capabilities, giving attention to well-documented policies and frameworks
along with keeping a record to determine individual job roles as per individual
capabilities (Sharma, 2016).
Conclusion
The above reflective journal has been prepared after re-collecting my
personal experiences and course learning about managing multiculturalism and
diversity which have made me learned about new strategies and management styles
required by contemporary business practitioners. The course explanations suggest
that multiculturalism is an ideology or a reactionary moment purposed to solve
issues related to cultural diversity, racial and social inequality through the behavior of
hospitality, acceptance, and tolerance. Besides, I learned that cultural conflicts and
issues can be mitigated strategically if effective cross-cultural communication
strategies are applied alongside enabling efficient resource management within
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firms. At the end, I can say that now I feel more learned and confident than ever
before to work in a multicultural workplace with more positivity and openness.
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References
Babalola, S. S. (2013). Integrated approach to workplace diversity through human
resource management. Journal of Social and Development Sciences, 4(9),
435-445.
Jackson, L. T., & Vijver, F. J. (2018). Multiculturalism in the workplace: Model and
test. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 16.
Leng, C. Z., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The Relationship between Cultural Diversity
and Workplace Bullying in Multinational Enterprises. Global Journal of
Management and Business Research: A Administration and Management,
14(6), 13-18.
Menaka, G. (2018). Cross-cultural communication-Means and Ways To make it
Effective. Journal for Advanced Research in Applied Sciences, 5(4), 52-60.
Patrick, H. A., & Kumar, V. R. (2012). Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and
Challenges. SAGE Open, 1-15.
Sharma, A. (2016). Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Cogent
Business & Management, 4, 1-14.
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