CAS204 Reflective Journal: Multiculturalism and Diversity Management

This reflective journal explores the complexities of managing multiculturalism and diversity in the workplace, drawing on the student's personal experiences as an intern and relating them to key themes from the course. The journal delves into the definitions of multiculturalism and diversity, emphasizing the need for respect, acceptance, and the creation of a positive work environment. It examines the importance of effective communication styles in multinational firms, particularly verbal and computer-mediated approaches, and discusses the significance of culture and ethnicity in diversity management. The journal also addresses the influence of personal relationships and power dynamics in the workplace, highlighting the need for balanced leadership and emotional connections. The author concludes that working in a multicultural environment requires developing personal skills and attitudes, alongside managerial skills like communication and cross-cultural management.

Reflective Journal
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Introduction
Reflective journals for students are considered a powerful instrument that guides them
to relate their learnings and experiences besides what they feel to improve for developing
their future learning skills. In literature, reflective writing is given much significance as it
creates a conversation between individual thought and action (Hussein, 2018). In this regard,
this reflective journal will reflect my understanding and feelings on key themes taught in the
last few weeks and how it relates to my previous experiences while I worked as an intern in
an organization. My reflective journal will focus majorly on managing multiculturalism and
diversity in a workplace, communication style adopted by an international organization, the
significance behind culture and ethnicity in diversity management and how power and
personal relationship influence people in an organization.
Managing Multiculturalism and Diversity in the workplace
Multiculturism can be defined as a multifaceted phenomenon that highlights the
existence behind diversified groups of people irrespective of demographic, ethnic, race and
origins in society and revealing a cultural mix within the organizational setting ( Porto-
Ribeiro & Fleith, 2018). Diversity management, on the other hand, is regarded as a process
intended to maintain and create a positive work environment where individual similarities
and dissimilarities are valued equally. The literature multiculturism and diversity
management mostly emphasizes organizational culture, the impact of diversity openness,
institutional environment and human resource management that are subject to diversity-
related forces, expectations, incentives, and requirements ( Porto-Ribeiro & Fleith, 2018).
According to me, multiculturalism must be included in organizations with respect and
acceptance so that every organizational individual is given unique treatment and recognized
irrespective of race, gender, socio-economic status, physical abilities, age, ideologies, and

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sexual orientation. However, cultural diversity management may require further exploration
of cultural differences so that a safer and positive environment is fostered which goes beyond
celebrating and embracing the rich diversity of every individual. This I can say because the
firm in which I worked previously consisted of a diversified workforce comprising
individuals belonging to various castes, ages, sex, and beliefs, working together just like a
multicultural team. Though I was fascinated to see the way my team performed excellently,
now I am aware that my organization recognized and acknowledged that the society is
pluralistic and therefore created a structure that can incorporate ethnic minorities as well as
immigrants to retain cultural diversity.
Communication style
Business communication style and practices are acquiring much prominance within
the contemporary workplace. It is considered as a powerful management tool through which
companies enable strategic decisions to influence individuals as well as the external business
environment. It helps in developing relationships through bold and direct communication
skills alongside promoting values by considering expressive and emotional values with the
help of considerate and sympathetic communication styles. In multinational and multicultural
firms, the business continues to bring people together by expanding geographical boundaries
and the most important element that keeps every business function integrated is an effective
communication style (Adu-Oppong & Agyin-Birikorang, 2014). However, my personal
experience has made me focus on different communication styles more importantly as I had
faced many issues related to it in my previous workplace.
I feel that to work with a global team, approaching business partners, customers and
colleagues following diversified cultures require new attitude and communication skills. With
the appropriate approach, organizational conflicts, as well as cultural indifferences, can be

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minimized significantly (Adu-Oppong & Agyin-Birikorang, 2014). During the course
learning, I came across various communication style out of which verbal and computer-
mediated communication style seems to be most appropriate for working efficiently in a
multicultural organization. However, I was unaware of such theories before and therefore had
to face many issues especially while communicating with people following different
languages. Now I have learned that to avoid such kind of communication issue, we must use
a computer-mediated approach that generally follows a common language i.e. English
besides enabling other non-verbal codes to convey quick replies and emotions.
Culture and ethnicity concerning Diversity Management
Traditionally, eliminating ethnic and culture-based discrimination has been facilitated
by implementing community-based networks and various laws to monitor diversity
management. While social enterprises offer ways through which immigrants can be placed
formally, state policies like anti-discrimination law prevent the perpetuation of specific skills
from being underutilized and violation (Cornelius, 2010). Yet, what I think here is how can
we determine whether the broader view of culture and ethnicity is well managed or not? Such
temptation has made me undertake further research on diversity management techniques
followed in firms where I found that as long as economic gains are supported through a
diversity approach, organizations consider it remarkably.
Though my research finding somehow reveals the elimination of cultural and ethnic
barriers from the workplace, the overall issue of equality, ethnicity and culture remains
within transnational organizations and ones that follow national systems. Such prevailing
issues not only brings negative impacts in business performance but also among employee
motivation that calls for application of diversity management techniques to manage culturally
diverse workplace effectively (Muda, Tohar, Yacob, & Rahman, 2018). In my school days, I

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encountered a similar issue in the classroom where one of my friends was bullied by others
due to racial indifference. Though I escalated many times, the impact of conflicts was paid
off by my friend who showed constant deterioration in his studies.
Personal relationship and power in the workplace
The concept of power is another negative connotation that is frequently used with
abuse in organizations. Yet, without power, an individual cannot influence others to achieve
the desired goal, or, as said by McClelland, to achieve motivation and job satisfaction.
Moreover, McClelland believed that leaders must embrace the power and personal
characteristics along with a particular communication style to position themselves as a strong
actor in a workplace setting (Cairns, 2017). Interpersonal relationship, on the other hand,
generates a positive organizational atmosphere by enabling trust and support between
employer and employee through cognitive and affective care. A leader's following affective
trust follows the emotional relationship with employees and gains mutual respect and
confidence while improving psychological condition through employee engagement (Ariani,
2015).
My working style reveals that I am good at realizing hidden agendas and motivation
factors of others and thereby, I will focus more upon developing workplace relationships by
building emotional connections with my fellow members. However, at times when team
efforts will be required to solve complicated projects, power will be used so that individual
needs are balanced effectively through an efficient leadership style. After the course unit
learning, I feel that in one aspect, power may be used to get work done, yet, it can be used for
taking the wrong side also such as politics to influence profits from the others. In my
previous workplace, seniors always used to take credit for my work. I believed that it was a

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part of organizational structure, but now I am aware that they used the power to play negative
politics for controlling other employees like me.
Conclusion
After recollecting and making a reflective journal of my past experiences and relating
them with my new learnings, now I feel that working in a multicultural workplace requires
the development of personal skills and attitude bedsides developing managerial skills like
communication, diversity and cross-cultural management. The learning has added significant
values to my perception that can be used effectively in my future career while I work in a
multicultural organization.

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References
Adu-Oppong, A. A., & Agyin-Birikorang, E. (2014). Communication in the Workplace:
Guidelines for improving effectiveness. Global Journal of Commerce & Management
Perspective, 3(5), 203-213.
Ariani, D. W. (2015). Relationship with Supervisor and Co-Workers, Psychological
Condition and Employee Engagement in the Workplace. Journal of Business and
Management, 4(3), 34-47.
Cairns, T. D. (2017). Power, Politics, and Leadership in the Workplace. Employment
Relations, 43(4), 5-11.
Cornelius, N. (2010). Ethnicity, Equality, and Voice: The Ethics and Politics of
Representation and Participation about Equality and Ethnicity. Journal of Business
Ethics, 97(1), 1-7.
Hussein, H. (2018). Examining the Effects of Reflective Journals on Students’ Growth
Mindset: A Case Study of Tertiary Level EFL Students in the United Arab Emirates.
Journal of Education, 6(2), 33-50.
Muda, K., Tohar, S. N., Yacob, S. N., & Rahman, R. A. (2018). The Relationship between
Religious Tolerance and Ethnic Relation Practices among Multi-Ethnic Youth in
Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social
Sciences, 8(6), 475–486.
Porto-Ribeiro, M., & Faith, D. d. (2018). Creativity and Multiculturalism: Literature Review.
Trends in Psychology, 26(2), 957-970.