Diversity: an Exquisite Culture Exchange Experience!
A few years back, travel was the means to culture exchange. Companies that required skills, talents or/and resources available in other countries would plan a trip for the manager to visit a new place. Through travelling, managers or usually top level employees would be exposed to fresh ideas to bring back home. This would result in product improvement, better services, broader networks and increased competitiveness in the market. Travel was similar to a burst of new flavors to the business, customers and competitors. Today, the world has opened up; people and resources are easily transferred from one part of the world to the other. Individuals are in continuous search of companies that can value their skills and talents. Globalization made it possible to earn the fruits of travel through recruiting a diverse workforce.
Imagine a digital marketing company in Saudi Arabia that recruits all nationalities. The company has a diverse workforce from Italy, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France. A new project was executed where they developed a website for an Italian restaurant opening up in Riyadh. Collaboration among different team members not only led to extraordinary results but also to the development of an exceptional team. The designs of the website were executed by an Italian designer, inspired by his roots and culture and the content was developed in Arabic language by an Egyptian content writer, while the website was marketed through different channels in Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Arabian marketing executive who was well aware of the tastes, preferences and habits of the customers. The cultural fusion definitely developed each employee’s individual skill and talent and created a unique and competitive team whom together built an attractive and bizarre website.
Defining Diversity
Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc. (Esty et al.1995). Diversity has opened the door to the exchange of new skills, languages, experiences and ideas. However, with an increasingly diverse workforce, it has become a requisite for managers to understand individual differences in order to develop effective teams and in return create fully functioning organizations. Beyond the idea of sharing new food, exchanging cultural information and traditions, a diversified workforce is not a once in a lifetime experience but rather a journey of knowledge, acceptance, tolerance and understanding.
Whether an employee is applying for a new job or a customer searching the company culture and values of his/her favorite brand, great interest is now shifting towards appreciation of a diverse workforce. In order to make good use of a diversified workforce, Organizations need to understand and acknowledge the individual differences between the employees, invest in the individual talents and create an open culture to promote collaboration and teamwork within the organization.
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