Differences in Culture and Diversity

Differences in Culture and Diversity

In the modern era, there are economic changes, growing population, and behaviors in the organization that reflect culture and diversity in workplaces. It is likely where there are more than two employees differences in background and culture that may arise in the workplace. The culture and diversity were nothing of value, but through organization behavior, employers have placed importance on it since it may affect the performance of work by employees. Some organizations have organizational cultures that are meant to guide practice, shape values, and attitudes. On the other side, those organizations have a high value on diversity, which means every individual is treated separately. The differences between culture and diversity are elaborated below and the impact they have in a working environment.

Organizational cultures are the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment in the workplace. Culture applies to two different areas which include the staff culture and the workplace. All these do influence each other and plays a significant role in the momentum for the business. A culture represent community existence where the group exhibits the same values and beliefs and they are expected to behave in a certain way. On the other hand, diversity emphasis on individual differences that include age, race, ethnic groups, religion, sexual orientation and more. Despite that people in the workplace are required to work together, though diversity their individual differences is highly recognized and that ensures employees are treated as one.

Further organization culture bring all employees on a common platform. That ensures that there is fairness and everybody is treated equal. All are brought on the board and no is neglected while performing the duties of the organization. Majorly, the differences in employees in terms of their culture, race, social groups and more are all brought to gather and unified through the common culture used by the firm. Culture determines how well the employees deliver on the goals and objectives of the firm since they all have a common goals and they are required to perform their best. According to diversity, it appreciate the differences among people understand that people are not equal. Therefore, it does not have a common ground in which employees should perform their duties. They focus on the various differences to help workers perform their best in their way.

Diversity is important and may help the firm achieve much but the differences between the employees may be hard to manage. Some may feel neglected particularly where larger groups sharing the same characteristics. Further, there are those differences in the workplace that may be heard to manage since cases are supposed to be treated differently and the human resource cannot be guided by a common ground to solve the dispute. That takes a lot of time before the differences between employees are unified and in other cases such differences develop a huge problem. There must be a culture where despite every individual recognized for who they are, to help solve conflicts within an organization.

Culture have set guidelines and predefined policies that give a sense of direction in the workplace. The roles and responsibilities of each individual re well known to them and the way the tasks should be accomplished are also known. Therefore, through culture all the behaviors attitudes and knowledge are guided by the common culture. The firm does not lay much emphasis on the differences between workers but focus on the achievement of goals. In addition, the teams are able to their best because all the roles and responsibilities are outlined by the culture. Diversity is also help employees perform their best since the organization use the differences in matching skills with the job task. So, they get internal motivation while performing duties and they can also help in increasing productivity. Sometimes it becomes hard to develop a team that can handle task due to differences. In case, team are meant to work together, the differences in policies can lead to slow performance.

Culture development does not rest in the management and employees alone. Some factors pays part in establishing the culture which is supposed to guide all employees within the working environment. The management control the culture by ensuring policies are put in place like the mission and vision statement and the values that direct the employees in conducting their responsibilities. Sometimes it becomes Hard to change the culture cause it alters the habits and norms in the workplace. The change can affect behaviors and the quality of work. Additionally diversity also helps in brining set of skills and knowledge in developing a common culture. Sometimes diversity serves as a motivational for that allow maximum productivity in the workplace. These differences plays a great part when the firm is determining set of policies, skills and attitudes to be observed.

When the organization has a common work culture, it promotes a healthy relationship among workers. First all the individuals are treated fairly and no one feels neglected. Under the set policies and documents provided by the management to guide behaviors and attitudes, it bring employees together and help them understand what they are required to do. Diversity in the workplace requires that employees learn different culture from other employees. Through the learning they get the understanding of different behaviors among people and how to cope. That is much of a burden since they are required to learn and also work.

In conclusion, there are several differences between culture and diversity. Culture provided values and behaviors that need to guide the employees’ n the workplace while diversity bring variety of traits, values and knowledge. Unlike in diversity, culture brings employees in a common platform where they are all treated as equal and fair. Culture help in managing the differences while diversity widens the differences between employees which in other instances can lead to conflicts. It becomes hard to develop team work through an organization culture that observe equity and fairness but in diversity, teamwork may not be easy to form and manage. Culture provides a sense of direction but in diversity, the employees determines how work will be done to achieve the set objectives. Therefore, the culture set the policies, behaviors, values that need to be used in achieving the gals while diversity the employees determine how work should be done since all the differences need to be catered for employees to feel included.

References

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Al-Ali, A. A., Singh, S. K., Al-Nahyan, M., & Sohal, A. S. (2017). Change management through leadership: the mediating role of organizational culture. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.

Stokes, P., Baker, C., & Lichy, J. (2016). The role of embedded individual values, belief and attitudes and spiritual capital in shaping everyday postsecular organizational culture. European Management Review, 13(1), 37-51.