Working with People from Diverse Backgrounds †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Working with People from Diverse Backgrounds. Answer: Introduction: At the time of working with culturally diverse people there needs to be proper awareness about ones own cultural background, experiences, attitudes, values and also the biases. In order to understand different cultures an individual needs to keep his or her own values intact. Self-reflection is extremely crucial to the cross culture learning process. It usually is possible by gaining proper knowledge about the different dimensions of culture and developing a baseline for effective comparisons about cultural differences so that the peaceful coexistence of people from all cultures is possible. There should always be proper understanding and confidence in ones own cultures, in order to maintain a proper balance at the workplace. Self reflection and understanding is crucial. There should also be an appreciation of the existent differences of the cultures as all of them contribute to the society and its proper advancement. In order to improve the ability to enhance social awareness, there should be a conscious effort to interact with the people of different cultures. In case interaction is established people of different cultures the characteristics and the good and bad points are understood clearly. Different cultures have different norms and criteria of allegiance thus improving on the quality of social awareness. The observational skills should be improved as this is a reliable tool in the development of sensitivity and understanding towards cultures. At a time when practices understand that a culturally diverse workforce is important for the workplace several advantages benefit from it. The most important advantage is the increased productivity and the ignition of loyalty. The solutions arise which are more in number as different and diverse minds think together. It helps to build synergy in teams and enhances the position of the organisation. It also helps to create a diverse customer base by relating to the people in different backgrounds. A diverse and accepting workforce is a place for ensuring the success of the business (Purnell 2014). Creating a work environment which is conduciveis important in order to make the employees feel well treated and cared for. In case the employees are well treated, they feel valued and gain interest in their work as they feel more comfortable. In case the workforce is empowered they work better and contribute better to the workplace. There is a developed competitive advantage in the workplace. The workplace should also secure mental well being of the employees due to the proper management of stress and the balance of the day to day pressures of work and requirements of personal life. The prevention of overwork is also necessary as the proper rationalisation of the work hours is important (Patrick and Kumar 2012). Cultural competence basically refers to the increased workplace communication and the proper amount of understanding of the individuals from all cultures. It leads to the different methods of thinking of a task and the analysis helps in the different outlooks towards a particular matter or a work at hand. Different methods of thinking of different employees can often lead to simplistic solutions to several problems in the workplace. The management of the tasks becomes easier and this reduces the personal work load on any particular employee. The overall productivity is bound to increase and this corresponds to the increase in the stature of the organisation. The employees overall courtesy towards the employees also increases (Shih, Young and Bucher 2013). In order to work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds, it is necessary to create a scenario in which proper communication and understanding of each of the culture is possible. It is necessary to conduct training programs to ensure that there are no misunderstandings between the clients, staff and volunteers from different diverse backgrounds. At the time of the training it needs to be made relevant and the staff should be asked to share their experiences and invite community leaders from the culturally and linguistically different backgrounds to share their stories and their varied perspectives (Barak 2016). In order to ensure that there is a proper amount of respect in the communication for the diversity and the culture of all the individuals, proper effort needs to be given. There needs to an open mind in the unfamiliar situations, there should be an alertness towards the way in which people interact, that gender roles might differ and there might be a call to organise different groups. There should be adequate awareness about different groups and individuals and willingness to learn and adapt. All in all there should be sufficient consistency and reliability towards the diversity in the workplace (Guillaume et al. 2013). In a business where there are culturally diverse people there need to be certain business considerations for maintaining effective relationships, mutual trust and confidence. There should be support and acceptance towards employees of all race and colour, descent, national or ethnic origin. The business managers should also be aware of the cross cultural differences that might arise due to the culturally diverse workforce. In addition to this there might be different perspectives to the same situation or differences of opinion on crucial decisions. These points should be kept in mind by the managers (Truong, Paradies and Priest 2014). The language forms which are used in the workplace are not always formal and polite as several people are not aware of the etiquettes that need to be followed in the office. Dressing sense in the office is one of the most common issues which are often misinterpreted. It might happen in certain situations that people from different backgrounds dress in a certain manner and are unaware of the professional style of dressing. In order to solve this there needs to be a proper address regarding the way to dress in office and the proper way to converse in a particular language (Purnell 2014). It is necessary to get a professional interpreter at the time of communicating with people with either little or no language of English in situations where the agency requires compliance, the issues are sensitive, explanation of clients doubts and obligations and when the information to be discussed is complex and detailed. A situation in my workplace where conflict was caused was regarding the pay corresponding to the work pressure and extra working hours. In case of misunderstandings in the workplace the impact on different cultures will be different as people from different cultural backgrounds respond to situations differently. Sensitive issues can be resolved by making the members understand the situation and making sure that the assurances which they make are kept. The situations in which there have been problems in communication involved the issues of patients not receiving care at the moment when required. The communication issues were solved by reporting to the proper authorities and steps were taken to administer proper services to the patients. Another situation involved the misinterpretation of the commands to a particular trainee. This situation was solved by calling a meeting and giving proper training and communication information to the trainee. Another scenario was that of the misunderstanding related to the existent preferences among the staff. This was solved by calling all the staff together and the manager addressing them and clarifying their misconceptions. Thus it was made evident that there were no issues regarding the miscommunication or cross culture that cannot be solved (Truong, Paradiesand Priest 2014). Appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication is a necessary for the cultural diverse sector owing to cultural, perceptual and language restrictions. In hospitality sector, miscommunication occurs among the members of the organization. Communication in hospitality sector covers two vital areas that includes customer service and interaction with staff interaction. The cultural diversity might create strong hurdles to understanding. The misunderstandings occur between the employees working in this industry and the customers visiting this sector. Ineffective verbal as non verbal communication creates confusion, low morale and lack of effective teamwork in this industry. Effective communication is also vital in improving travel service and tourism sector. As the tourist requires to be given information about the various aspects target place including attractions, suitable visiting places , routes etc. However, tour guides plays vital role in giving an introduction about the place to the visitors. There might be negative impact on the tourist if the communication is not effective. The tour guides is known as connector between tourist and the target place. As the international visitors needs tour guides for obtaining comprehensive information about the historic places, cultural relics etc, effective communication is necessary for the tour guides. Therefore, pleasant communication , high verbal and non verbal abilities and proper tone of languages helps the tour guides in maintaining good relationship with the tourist. As a result, it benefits the tourism industry as it helps them in attracting the tourist from all over the world. References: Barak, M.E.M., 2016.Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications. Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Woods, S.A., Sacramento, C.A. and West, M.A., 2013. Getting diversity at work to work: What we know and what we still don't know.Journal of occupational and organizational psychology,86(2), pp.123-141. Patrick, H.A. and Kumar, V.R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges.Sage Open,2(2), p.2158244012444615. Purnell, L.D., 2014.Guide to culturally competent health care. FA Davis. Shih, M., Young, M.J. and Bucher, A., 2013. Working to reduce the effects of discrimination: Identity management strategies in organizations.American Psychologist,68(3), p.145. Truong, M., Paradies, Y. and Priest, N., 2014. Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews.BMC health services research,14(1), p.99.