Working With Cultural Diversity: Concepts, Practices, And Skills

White privilege, discrimination, prejudice and racism, and intersectionality are concepts and theories that relate to the concept of cultural diversity. Describe how at least two of these concepts and theories are instrumental in enabling counsellors / other helping practitioners to work with people from diverse groups. Research the web site of one organization which works with cultural diversity. Use the information on the website to analyse how the organization enables cultural competence, and how they address white privilege, discrimination, prejudice and racism, or intersectionality.

The report should include:

• a critical analysis of the two concepts and/or theories.
• a thorough examination as to how these theories support practitioners in their work with people from diverse groups
• an analysis of how these theories and culturally competent practices are applied in one organisation
• a demonstration of an understanding of the important skills & knowledge required for working with people from diverse groups

Analysis of the Concepts

Cultural diversity can be explained as a concept which comprises of an extended variety of various human cultural and societies. When individuals of different cultures come together in a group are called as a culturally diverse group. In large-scale organisations, there are found people with high diversity, and this creates some issues for the organisation such as intersectionality, racism, prejudice, discrimination and white privilege (Shore, et al., n.d.). The report will highlight analysis of few concepts of cultural diversity, their application in an organisation, examination of such concepts and the skills required for managing the organisational working in diverse groups.

It is an element of societal privileges which demonstrates that there has been given high importance and benefits to the white people in the number of Western nations in comparison with the individuals who are non-white irrespective of their competence, skills and knowledge. As per the critical race theory, the concept of white privilege is researched and studied by some theorists of whiteness studies. It is one of the aspect or characteristics of racism only which divides the individuals and provides additional political, economic and social benefits to the white people (Delgado and Stefancic, 2012).

Discrimination is the biggest issue or challenges in the culturally diversified groups. This biases is present in the form of racial discrimination in the consumer markets, credit, housing and employment. Today, it is present in each and every sector whether at the grass root level or the senior level of management. There are theories of discrimination such as taste discrimination and conflict theory. The taste discrimination takes place when the higher authorities prefer some individuals over other employees or people (Guryan and Charles, 2013). The discrimination can be seen in the form of incentives, and wages offered, flexibility was given, work pressure, etc. Another theory based on discrimination i.e. conflict theory is related to the discrimination done by ethnicity, race, education, social class and gender (MacDonald, 2009).

Examination showing how these concepts supports practitioners in their work with people from diverse groups

In the present scenario, because of increased cultural diversity, it is essential that there must be knowledge of all the related concepts of cultural diversity such as discrimination and white privilege. It supports the practitioners in their work with people from a diverse group as through these concepts there can be attained an understanding of the cross-cultural differences and dissimilarities (Thomas, 2010). It helps the practitioners in developing skills for comprehending the diversities and communicates in such a manner which results in development of an improved association with the culturally diverse individuals. For undertaking the research or the study in an efficient manner, it is essential to have a better understanding of the values and cultures of the people. Hence, an analysis of the concepts helps the practitioners in having the active working (Queensland Government, 2010).

Examination showing how these concepts support practitioners in their work with people from diverse groups

                                                                                                (Source: Google, 2016)

Google Inc. is considered as one of the best working place for the employees across the globe. There are around 57,000 individuals who are offered employment opportunity by the organisation (Google, 2017). There are present highly diversified groups. The diversification is based on culture, caste, race, gender, education, language and another number of factors. There are several practices which are incorporated and implemented by Google for managing such a highly diversified cultural groups:

There are several training and programmes which are there in the organisation which helps employees in understanding the benefits of cultural diversities and presence of diversified groups. These training support the employees in taking the use of competencies of the diverse individuals and achieve the organisational objectives with improved efficiency (Zokowski, 2014).

The recruitment practices of Google are highly ethical and appreciable as there are no restrictions on the recruitment of individuals with high diversity. Even the organisation has a good percentage of female employees at various higher positions. Ethical recruitment practices are incorporated in Google at every level and unit.  

In Google, there is efficient succession planning as there is a strategic and ongoing process for the development and identification of a diverse pool of competence for the position of company’s potential future mangers and leaders (Google, 2016).

The higher authorities and the managers at Google ensure that there is appropriate managing of diversity by interconnecting the employees’ compensation and the performance assessment of the progress of the various initiatives of diversity.

Google set qualitative as well as quantitative measures for analysing the impact of the various diversity programs. This helps in evaluating that whether the diversity programs are found to be successful and beneficial or not. If the outcomes are not as expected, then there are made changes in the programs and training offered to the employees (Guynn, 2015).

The performances of the employees are linked with the organisational diversity. It has been made understand to all the employees and teams that the greater is the diversity is, the increased is the organisational productivity and employees’ efficiency. Therefore, the performances of the individuals are interlinked with the diversity of the individuals.

At the time of making the strategic plans and policies for the company, they are linked with the diversity strategy. It makes diversity as a significant factor of the organisational strategic plan of Google so that there can be given equal emphasis on the diversity management perspective.

Initiating from the senior or top level management of Google, there is the transfer of the vision of diversity among all the levels of the organisation. Communicating from the top level emphasises the entire organisation to follow the aspect and give much importance to diversity and diversity management (Singal, 2017).

Google's Practices for Cultural Competence

A demonstration of an understanding of the important skills & knowledge required for working with people from diverse groups

Working in a highly diversified group sounds to be difficult for a number of individuals. But as a part of the job, individuals are required to have proper management of There are a number of skills and abilities which are required for effectively working with individuals who are from diverse groups:

It is essential that all the individuals must have the adequate and appropriate knowledge of the diverse values, traditions, history and culture of the diverse groups. By attaining the knowledge of these elements, there takes place an improved association among the individuals. At the time of communication, the knowledge related to theses factors helps in guiding the individuals that in what manner and what kind of communication they must have with another person (Deardorff, 2011).

The foremost thing which is required to work effectively in a diverse group is to possess a sense of empathy, warmth and genuineness so that it can become easy to understand the diversities of other individuals. By having a sense of empathy, the individuals effectively understands the issues and challenges of diverse groups and helps them in having a comfortable working environment in the organisation (Banks, 2015).

The individuals must possess an acceptance approach so that they can easily accept the diversities and dissimilarities of other individuals. By having an acceptance towards others’ disparities helps in building a strong bond of understanding among the individuals (Kirmayer, 2012).

Each individual demands respect in an organisation. If a person is offended by its diversity, it creates a number of issues and challenges in the organisation. Therefore, it is necessary that all individuals must respect the diversities of other individuals so that there can take place a healthy working environment (Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot, 2010).

For reducing or eliminating the barricades of cultural diversity, the one most vital element is to have effective communication among the individuals. The more the communication is there among the employees, the greater is the development of friendly and informal association among them as the individuals get to understand each other’s diversities in a more approachable manner (Moran, Abramson and Moran, 2014).

The individuals must have a willingness to know each other. If because of diversities there is no communication then it will result in increased number of issues. Therefore, it is essential that the individuals must have an initiative to know each other thoroughly (Sue and Sue, 2012).

Conclusion 

Managing diversities is extremely essential in present times as there are the present high number of diverse groups at almost at the workplaces and institutions. From the report, it can b e concluded that the concepts of diversity have their major support to the practitioners for having effective working. By having the skills and competencies mentioned in the report, the individuals can easily manage their working in diverse groups. It is also concluded that Google is one of the leading examples which effectively manages the organisational diversity. By having insights from Google, other organisations can also improve their practices of diversity management.

References

Banks, J.A., 2015. Cultural diversity and education. Routledge.

Deardorff, D.K., 2011. Assessing intercultural competence. New directions for institutional research, 2011(149), pp.65-79.

Delgado, R. and Stefancic, J., 2012. Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press.

Google, 2016. Google Diversity. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.google.com/diversity/ 

Google, 2017. About us. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/ 

Guryan, J. and Charles, K.K., 2013. Taste?based or Statistical Discrimination: The Economics of Discrimination Returns to its Roots. The Economic Journal, 123(572), pp.F417-F432.

Guynn, J., 2015. Exclusive: Google raising stakes on diversity. USA Today. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/05/google-raises-stakes-diversity-spending/26868359/ 

Kirmayer, L.J., 2012. Rethinking cultural competence.

MacDonald, K., 2009. Evolution, psychology, and a conflict theory of culture. Evolutionary Psychology, 7(2), p.147470490900700206.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Parrish, P. and Linder-VanBerschot, J., 2010. Cultural dimensions of learning: Addressing the challenges of multicultural instruction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 11(2), pp.1-19.

Queensland Government, 2010. Practice Paper, Working with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Pp.28. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.communities.qld.gov.au/resources/childsafety/practice-manual/prac-paper-working-cald.pdf 

Shore, L.M., Randel, A.E., Chung, B.G., Dean, M.A., Holcombe Ehrhart, K. and Singh, G., 2011. Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of Management, 37(4), pp.1262-1289.

Singal, J., 2017. 3 Lessons Companies Can Learn From Google’s Diversity Travails. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/02/3-lessons-companies-can-learn-from-googles-diversity-issues.html 

Sue, D.W. and Sue, D., 2012. Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Thomas, D.C., 2010. Cultural intelligence: Living and working globally. ReadHowYouWant. com.

Zokowski, P., 2014. How to build a diverse workforce: lessons for Google and LinkedIn. The Guardian. Accessed on: 30^th March, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/jun/16/google-linkedin-boa-intel-diversity-diverse-workforce