Culture and Cultural Diversity (Dissertation Sample)

CHAPTER ONE
Theoretical Background
Culture and Cultural Diversity
Introduction
It was argued that there is a confrontation of liberal ‘progress’ and ethnic ‘primitiveness’ that engendered in relation to minority protection. He argues that although in internal context, wherein a minority is juxtaposed with majority within a given polity, ethnicity informs the definition of minority as the ethnic ‘other’ in the international context.[Mohamed Shahabuddin, Ethnicity in the International Law of Minority Protection: The Post Cold War(1989-2010)Contexts in Perspective.]
Humanity is a composition of different who have different ways of living and hence, culture can be characterized by factors such as: Geographical backgrounds, age, and language, physical appearance, marital status, political backgrounds, ethnic, educational levels, gender, economic status and religious believes. These factors are some of the key elements that influences how people relates, work, live with one another in the world and hence the source of cultural diversity amongst humankind. Differences in cultural influences are what forms different individuals personality traits such as self-esteem, well-being, emotional, spiritual, acceptance and security. A society composed of different multicultural groups of individuals is likely to shape social-economic and cultural statuses of a given society (Nederveen Pieterse 2007). For example, United States of America is a country composed of people from different backgrounds, states, cultures and history. Therefore, cultural diversity amongst people living in USA has influenced its history, cultures and economic status. Multiculturalism should therefore be maintained and maintained and should not be assumed (Lawson 2006)[A managed cultural diversity attracts rich and broad mixtures of professional skills that improve designs and problem solving capabilities. An approach through homogeneity is likely to produce low quality decisions. Cohesion is therefore a better choice in achieving higher quality of decisions.]
1 Culture in the Classical Liberal Thinking
1 Organizational Approaches
Globalization have contributed to major cultural, ethnic and gender diversity and its for these cases that has led management to pay extra attentions for the effectiveness of organizations. Management of cultural diversity in organizations is discussed here to show ways and approaches that are being employed to attain competitive advantages needed in today’s businesses environments. Cultural diversity through managements hence, seeks to provide ways that can address innovations and creativity, development of marketing strategies, problems solving ideas, costs and human resource management. Therefore, organizational capabilities are important in shaping cultural diversity amongst different organizations and with the use of creativity, communication, education programs, human resource management and self-esteem (Held 2000).
2 Creativity
Kanter’s Studies have shown that team-work promotes and innovations and creativity and for this case, innovative organizations are using Heterogeneous approaches to form "a pool of professionals”. Through heterogeneous approaches, innovative companies have developed better ways of eradicating racism, gender imbalance, classism and creation of jobs to professionals with diverse cultural backgrounds. Creativity through team work is achievable by the number of people involved in making decisions that is the majority and minority groups involved (Mullins 2002). Furthermore, Kanter’s studies indicated that decisions originating from team-work involving minority groups are more creative and useful than views originating from homogenous majority groups. She concluded that, teamwork and creativity increases especially when an issues is being addressed by heterogeneous team with different attitudes and formed by individuals of diverse nationalities, gender and race (Back 1996). Differences in attitude almost team members is the main barrier to creativity whereby every member need to know the cultural factors of the other team member. In doing so, best performing organizations must involved their teams in awareness training programs that also improves the overall individuals performance in the organization.[Kanter: "Age, race, gender tends vary systematically due to demography influences but cognitive thinking, believes and working attitude are randomly distributed amongst the involved population”. Therefore, cultural diversity amongst working teams have positive influence to decision making capabilities, creativity and handling a given problem.]
The diagram below shows a collection of activities and issues influencing cultural diversity in relation to efficiency and management of personnel from diverge cultural origins.
Figure 1:Mindset about Cultural DiversityChallenges met or addressed?Opportunities or problems identified?Heterogeneity through nationality/ race/ethnicityEffect on communication, cohesiveness, morale and conflictEffects on interaction e.g. stereotypePrejudice (e.g. ethnocentrisms, racism)Human Resource SystemsRecruitmentTrainingBenefits and allowancesPromotionOrganizational CultureCultural inclusionsValuing differencesPrevailing value systemEducational programsManagement education in valuing differencesImproved public educationCultural DifferencesTaking advantages gained from diversity.Promoting knowledge and acceptancesManagement of Cultural diversity Management of Cultural Diversity
Gender and career involvementsDual career couplesWork family conflictsGender equality
Management of Cultural diversity improves the behavioral activities in any working organization. Management gets involved in various activities since they have to work much closely to all the other members of the organization. It describes and explains the causes, analyzing and the management of the interruptions, the address of the improving communication skills vividly, getting better at managing time, learning to take the breaks and to focus on oneself as a manager not so much on others, The analysis of these cases betters the cultural differences for personnel’s different positions. This sets for improvement of one’s character to continue fitting in the position.
3 Accommodation of the Diversity and Multiculturalism
* Charles Taylors
* Young
* Kimylica
David Scott argues that, things have considerably changed in our historical and epistemic worlds and now culture has recommended itself as the conceptual site both of the critique of Enlightenment Reason, and of assertion and security of the epistemological privilege of local knowledge. It now appears that fairness demands more than the neutrality offered by Rawal’s "A theory of Justice" and that consideration of justice, freedom, citizenship, equality and political community require respect for difference understood as cultural identity.[David Scott, Culture in Political Theory, Political theory 2003; 31-92.]
On his account that one expression of the new awareness of the relevance of culture for liberal democratic theorizing-that of Amy Gutmann. Gutmann suggests that liberal democracies have become, as she puts it "sites of controversy over whether and how its public institutions should recognize the identities of cultural and disadvantaged minorities”. Two features of Gutmann’s appreciation of the relevance of culture for liberal political theory. The first has to do with the role culture are to play as conceptual index. In her view there is a conjunction between "culture and disadvantage”. For her culture marks an area of damage or injury or marginalization, and signals simultaneously, the idiom of politics of repair or redress. The second notable feature has to do with the site of Guttmann’s anxiety, namely, the public institutions of North Atlantic liberal democracies. Clifford Geertz (culture as constructed). At any rate the western political theory culture now seems very indispensable. What are the conditions that have occasioned this new demand in the political theory? Scott argues that from John Locke to the present the liberal political theory has been concerned precisely with the problem of uniformity and difference. He contends that there is a difference between the standing of the early liberal thinkers (Locke, David Hume, John Stuart Mill and Isaiah Berlin) and the multiculturalists’ thinkers (James Tully, Charles Taylor and Will kymlicka).
Scott refers to James Tully provocative work as a point for departure. For Tully culture has a measure of conceptual autonomy, in his view there is a question of identifying the kind of political arrangements that serve out best understanding of the way that culture works. Tully wants to face up the double aspiration of people to be free and to be rooted, without compromising either to universalism or nativism[James Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an age of Diversity.]
4 Cultural Diversity and Communication Management
Communication is an important factor influencing culture and individual development. Communication involves exchange on information’s, ideas or data through selected mode of communication that include face-to-face and wired networks. Effective communication involves the sending and receiving of information contents in correct, understandable, timely and secure ways. Exchange of information with different members of any organization requires the combination of necessary skills and processes. Communication is subject to different barriers that include language, breakdown of communication equipment, and loss of information, distance involved, security and individual’s skills in understanding the contents. Communicat...