Cultural Diversity In Organizations

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Introduction
In this globalized world, a huge number of people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs and certainly cultures should work interactively and this global working culture can be defined by only two words, "change and diversity". A lot of organizations are developing their businesses by expanding their borders in other countries because the world where we are currently living is becoming a small village and the distance between the countries are diminishing year by year. Many people tend to be the part of worldwide economy and they want to be eligible to compete with everyone. In this case, various kinds of organizations need diversity in order to be more creative and overcome the obstacles and challenges. Indeed, foreign companies in …show more content…

Many various definitions can be given to the organizational culture and it is an abstract concept (Barney, 1986, p. 657). He (Barney) said, it is often explained as “a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which firm conducts its business”. However, this concept was explained in another way as “the software of the mind which differentiates the workers of one organization from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p. 180). These both explanations can be considered as true, while the first description is proper and straightforward. Indeed, different organizations have their various goals, symbols, core values and assumptions. It clearly illustrates that culture has similarities with organizational culture and it shows that an organization`s culture has effects on the company in different ways… (Dhakshayene and Anneli, …show more content…

Here the primary dimensions of diversity mean that they are basic items which have more impact on our identity and self-image than the secondary dimensions. These are age, gender, mental and physical abilities, race, character and ethnicity. When it comes to the secondary dimensions, they have more influence on our self-definition and self-esteem. In the list of secondary dimensions our family status, education background, first language, organizational role, geographic location, work style, work experience, religion and communication style are included. It is apparent from these two types of dimensions that the diversity in the workplace plays vital role. Diversity in the workplace attracts employees from wide range of backgrounds and this gives the organization chance to create creative, quality and talented workforce (Sunanda, Bagade and Prabha, 2013). Nevertheless, the workplace diversity can be responsible for conflicts between employees due to difference of behaviors, perception, attitudes, ideas, interest, religious and political differences (Abdel, 2012). Kigali argued that conflict is not always negative and it depends on how conflict is solved, if it is handled correctly, it can be valuable source of improvement (2006). These views indicate that although the diversity can be the cause of conflict, by handling

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