Introduction
Humans are significantly made with personal and innate characteristics in them that are completely different and apart from the others. This idea is mainly because of the certain fact that human beings have their own characteristics of uniqueness and individuality. Thus, human beings become existent in their own personal sense with their own identity differing them from others at some point in their innate qualities.
In same manner, cultures and social values are also created and develop with likeness to the concept of individuality and uniqueness since they are created by human beings themselves. Social groups of relative similarities functioned and develop them own system of values and accordance making them united in their own concept and apart from the other social groups. Thus with this concept, cultural diversity has predominantly existed as how society themselves strive and develop to the point of their current state.
The Issues on Social Differences and Discrimination in the Work Force
This innate and basically natural concept in the society has been always a massive hindrance for the establishment of social unity and uniformity especially on the principal level of a team. Since the team-building concept’s main agenda is the establishment of a uniting factor and bond among its members, their own personal and cultural diversity has always been a challenge for the said aim. Common problems and challenges such as uniqueness in the dominant language, dissimilarities with social norms and acceptable principles, differences concerning perception and opinions, and others often become a problem in the team-building aspect. In general, diversity produces stratification and division thus unification is being hindered. Indeed, cultural diversity in the aspect of team building is one of its main weaknesses.
However, cultural diversity in a certain team can also serves as its potential strength producing advantages apart from its common disadvantages. Having a culturally diversified group is also beneficial because it can basically cover much more grounds than groups of only single culture. This concept is true because having a multicultural society in a single group will produce more and significantly different opinions and ideas and with the merging of these different ideas, a single group can produce a statement or an idea that is generally valid since it actually addresses point of views from each culture.
It is like having a representative from each culture joining together to create a concept that will unify their principles and eliminate their differences. In addition, through having a multicultural group, individuals can actually gain an opportunity to learn from the other and become acquainted with other social groups’ culture. Thus, each one can learn to adapt and relate to each other creating a bond that will transcends their culturally differences.
In a point, building a team with the basic qualities of cultural diversity is indeed a difficult challenge because each member and especially its leaders must be able to eliminate the diversity walls between its people without offending or discriminating as much as a single individual. It is very important that in this aspect, each and everyone must understand the importance of respect for other’s personal culture and their own diversity thus avoiding further complications in the situation like straining the said opportunity.
However, the said concept of building a team of multicultural individuals is also a rewarding and an important part of social development of the human beings. Through this course, society can start to bring down the wall that separates them from each other and use the concept of cultural diversity not as their main weakness from conceptualizing social unity but as their potential strength for harmoniously existing as culturally colorful society.
Conclusion
Individuals are known for their respective characteristics differentiating them form the whole group in the society. Their natural characteristics make them unique from the group possessing their own identical nature. In a larger scale, individual diversity transcends also the social concept as individuals with a similar or connecting characteristics group together to form their own society (Golembiewski, 1995). These similarities or connecting factor manifest through their culture, ethnic background, environment and social views and personal philosophy binding together individuals who share some of the said factors. Because of this, diversity in the society as a whole is established significantly affecting most of the social structures and organizations.
In the business organization, diversity is also considered as a significant idea as this can cause some serious issues for the business entity. Often, human resource managers incorporate the concept of cultural diversity in some of their functions particularly hiring of employees (Golembiewski, 1995; Laroche, 2002). At some cases, businesses prefer applicants originating from known social background as fame and prestige can indeed entice attention and interest. However, the legal structure in the society has answered these cases by declaring them as acts discrimination and punishable by legal approach. Thus, human resource selection of the business organization must be able to address properly their function and manage the issue of diversity in their people.
Consider for example a certain case that is presumably analyzed as a form of discrimination. In this scenario, a certain company opened an entry level vacancy in their accounting department which was answered by numerous application requests. After critical examination and screening, the search was narrowed down to two applicants. During this period a certain applicant that was screened out during the previous cutback called to contest the denial of his application. This has led to a comparison between him and the applicant chosen for the position which led to some inquisition and explanation as to why the chosen applicant was picked above the denied applicant who called.
Ideally, business organizations desire to pick out in their pool of applicants the best among the rest as these people are known to be the most productive and efficient for the company’s operation. Considering the scenario presented, both of the applicants have MBA degree however the one denied has a higher GPA than the other and also has more extensive work experience. This factor indeed can already cause some disagreement thus, as the denied applicant can be said to be the better performer among the two.
Another controversial factor is the Alma matter of the two applicants, the denied applicant graduated from an African American University which tracking off in terms of prestige and fame from the school of the chosen applicant which is an Ivy League School. Indeed, this can cause arguments of discrimination as it seems that the basis for the application is the cultural background of the applicants.
However, consider first the main criteria for the vacant position which is that it is an entry level position for the accounting department. This means that the company is looking for a young employee who they can train and can serve in their organization for longer terms thus, age manifests as the deciding factor in the case. As the details present, the chosen applicant is younger than the denied one which means that the company is looking for employee for a longer period of service rather than the other who is older.
Another argument for the selection is that the position is only for entry level and the qualifications of the denied applicant way exceed the position making him overqualified for the position. These two factors can be argued as the basis for the selection of the employees and not because the company discriminate the denied applicant because of his cultural and education background.
References
- Banks, James A (2005). Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum, and Teaching. Ally & Bacon Publishing Company. 5th Edition.
- Heuberger, Barbara (2004). Cultural Diversity: Building Skills for Awareness, Understanding and Application. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 3rd Edition.
- Golembiewski, Robert T. (1995). Managing Diversity in Organizations. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. ISBN: 0-8173-0786-9.
- Laroche, Lionel (2002). Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions: Managing Cultural Differences. Butterworth-Heinemann. Elsevier Science, MA. ISBN: 0-7506-7581-0.
