Cultural Diversity In Workplace: Advantages Of Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity in the workplace
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Introduction
With approximately twenty-five million people in the United States workforce being foreign born, the workforce of today is more diverse than ever before. It is prohibited to discriminate people in the corporate world, which has seen employees of different gender, race, age, educational background, religion, sexuality, and ethnicity, among others coming in. The realization that diversity in the workplace is inevitable has seen more companies gearing towards it so they can reap its benefits. Nevertheless, they should prepare themselves for challenges as well.
Advantages of cultural diversity
The primary benefit of diversity is encouraging high productivity. According to the 2015 McKinsey report, among other studies, companies that adopt cultural diversity, mainly ethnic and racial diversity are more profitable than the standardized workplaces. The diverse team of employees brings with them a range of experience and expertise, which advances the solving of problems (Agolla & Ongori, 2007, pp. 074). Employees in a homogeneous working environment lead to a status quo. However, with diversity, there is a healthy competition that leads to efficiency and new ideas that influence the company positively, leading to an increase in productivity.
Increased creativity is another gain from cultural diversity. There is a saying that “two heads are better than one,” and in a diverse workforce, the saying becomes true when two culturally different people work together. A company with employees with a similar background will always deal with the sameness of ideas, problem-solving solutions, and approach to various situations at work (Martin, 2014, pp. 90). However, with employees from different ethnic and racial groups, a business gets to have varied perspectives towards a problem and different ideas, which enhances a business’s creativity.
Diversity also increases the range of services a company can offer, and in return, increase its revenue. Teams with a collection of people with different cultural understanding, language and skills make a company capable of providing a wide array of services to different customers. For instance, having employees who are bilingual increases a company’s revenue as they can reach more customers who speak different languages (Ayres, 2019). Likewise, a business with employees that represent different ethnic groups attracts customers from these groups, as they have an assurance of cultural sensitivity and understanding.
Disadvantages of cultural diversity
A problem in communication is the most prevalent cultural diversity disadvantage. Effective communication is a driving force for success in any organization, as without it, productivity suffers. It affects communication as when dealing with c...