The term ‘cultural diversity’ refers to the assimilation of a group of individuals who belong to different society or culture. Cultural diversity is determined in terms of the difference in language, religion, ethnicity, race, age, gender and sexual orientation of people (Payne, et al., 2018). With the advent of globalisation organisations started welcome people from different cultural background as employees. The purpose of this study is to discuss cultural diversity in the workplace with reference to the four component of culture- health beliefs and practices, family Pattern, communication style, death and dying practices.
Four elements of culture
Health beliefs and practices are very important element of culture. Several research has been conducted on the health beliefs and practices in the culture of England. The studies have revealed that, unlike the people of the developing and Asian countries, people in Britain do not nourish fatalistic, social and supernatural beliefs about health issues. The Islamic, Asian migrants celebrate their supernatural beliefs regarding menstruation, pregnancy and birth and death through different kinds of rituals. For example, the Islamic migrant women who are pregnant may not agree for a regular check-up as according to their beliefs this may herm the baby inside the womb (Barak, 2016).
The impact of this health beliefs and practices on the workplace can be explained with the help of an example. Companies in England, that provide free health check-up services to the employees may point out that due to the fasts during Ramadan months the Islamic migrant employees are falling seek and this in turn is curbing their productivity. In this case, they may advise Islamic migrant employees to consume nutritious food and stay healthy. The Islamic migrant employees may not follow such advices as this may prove that he or she is not fully devoted to the almighty (Li, 2017).
The workplaces in England should understand the emotions related to the religious beliefs and provide facilities like ‘work form home’ to the Islamic migrant employees who are unwell during Ramadan months.
Family is an essential element of culture.There exists the concept of nuclear family and gender biasness in the traditional culture of England. The rate of gender biasness has been decreased due to the vibe of woman empowerment. The gender biasness that has it roots in the cultures of England, has an inverse relation with the generation gap. In other words, as the generation gap increases gender biasness decreases. Previously the native women were seen as dependant poor creature in England. The same was true for the Asian, South African as well as the Islamic immigrants in England, but with the advent of the tech savvy generation of 21st century, all such conventional concepts have been diluted. This can be explained with the help of an example. The construction companies in England, which used to avoid recruiting female employees, have now started to employing native female engineers as well as female immigrants from different cultural background (Rodríguez-Pose & Hardy, 2015). In order to remove the taboos regarding the recruitment and equal salary of female employees of different communities the government has now implemented laws that will secure the rights of female workers like- receiving equal remuneration and appreciation as compared to the male colleague of the same rank, receiving paid leave during pregnancy (Lambert, 2016).
Communication style is another significant element of culture. Communication style largely depends on the language and symbols. People from different cultural background use different symbols and language for communication. This may become a barrier I the process of interaction, in case of a culturally diverse workplace. In order to bring uniformity in the communication process and remove all obstacles regarding language and symbols, the workplaces in England give the immigrant employees pre-job as well as on-job training, which include English learning classes. All the workplaces should also establish anti-bullying cell for those who are not familiar with English language (Meyers & Vallas, 2016).
Death and dying practices are also essential element of culture. Different cultural groups perform different kinds of rituals in case of deaths. There are huge difference between the rituals performed by Asian immigrants in England, Islamic immigrants and the native people of England. The workplaces in England need to understand the emotions related to the rituals of death which varies depending on the culture of the migrant employees and respect the diversity by providing facilities like leaves or bonus (Moon, 2016). Thus, the workplaces in England should assist the immigrant employees to perform the rituals of their own culture when they face the deaths of any person from their family or extended family (Al-Jenaibi, 2017).
In the conclusion, it can be said that, the cooperation as well as coordination on the part of the employers are highly recommended to maintain a healthy environment for the assimilation of the culturally diverse people.
References
Payne, J., Cluff, L., Lang, J., Matson-Koffman, D., & Morgan-Lopez, A. (2018). Elements of a workplace culture of health, perceived organizational support for health, and lifestyle risk. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(7), 1555-1567.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Lambert, J. (2016). Cultural diversity as a mechanism for innovation: Workplace diversity and the absorptive capacity framework. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 20(1), 68.
Li, C. R., Lin, C. J., Tien, Y. H., & Chen, C. M. (2017). A multilevel model of team cultural diversity and creativity: The role of climate for inclusion. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 51(2), 163-179.
Meyers, J. S., & Vallas, S. P. (2016). Diversity regimes in worker cooperatives: workplace inequality under conditions of worker control. The Sociological Quarterly, 57(1), 98-128.
Al-Jenaibi, B. (2017). The scope and impact of workplace diversity in the United Arab Emirates–A preliminary study. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 8(1).
Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Hardy, D. (2015). Cultural diversity and entrepreneurship in England and Wales. Environment and Planning A, 47(2), 392-411.
Moon, R. J. (2016). Internationalisation without cultural diversity? Higher education in Korea. Comparative education, 52(1), 91-108.
