The Multicultural

Environment

Presented by:
Shagun
Isha
Mohit Mehra
Anuj Sharma
Mohit Khorana
 The Nature of
Organization and Social Culture
• Organization culture: the set
of values, beliefs, behaviors,
customs, and attitudes that
help the members of the
organization understand
what it stands for, how it
does things, and what it
considers important.
• Multiculturalism: the broad
issues associated with
differences in values, beliefs,
behaviors, customs, and
attitudes held by people in
different cultures.
 Diversity and Multiculturalism in
Organizations

• All organizations are becoming more

diverse and multicultural.

• The reasons for increasing diversity and

multiculturalism
– Legislation: diversity improves the quality
of the workforce, changing demographics,
the globalization movement.
 Dimensions of Diversity
and Multiculturalism
• Age distributions:
average age of the
workforce is increasing,
median age is expected
to rise from 35.5 to 38
years.
• Gender: more women
are entering the
workforce causing
organizations to change
the relative proportion
women to men, to
create a fair balance.
 Reasons for Increasing
Diversity and Multiculturalism

Changing
Legislation and demographics in
legal action the labor force

Increasing diversity and multiculturalism in organizations

Increased awareness
that diversity
The globalization
improves the
movement
quality of the
workforce
 The Glass Ceiling

• A barrier that keeps

women from
advancing to top
management
positions in many
organizations.
• This ceiling is a real
barrier that is
difficult to break, but
is also subtle that is
difficult to discern.
 Ethnicity

• The third major dimension of cultural diversity

in organizations is ethnicity.
• Ethnicity refers to the ethnic composition of a
group or organization.
• The biggest projected changes involve whites
and Hispanics, the percentage of whites in
the workforce is expected to drop from 72%
to 62.4%.
• Hispanics will climb from 11.5% to 17.6%,
while other groups will rise at a lower rate.
 Effects of Diversity and
Multiculturalism in Organizations
• Diversity, multiculturalism, and
competitive advantage, for
example:
– Organizations that learn to
manage diversity and
multiculturalism generally
have higher levels of
productivity and lower
levels of turnover and
absenteeism.
• Conflict can rise through
misunderstood, misinterpreted,
or inappropriate interactions
between people of different
groups.
• However, these conflicts will
disappear in the future.
 Managing Diversity and
Multiculturalism in Organizations
• Understanding is an
important element of
managing diversity and
multiculturalism.
• Empathy: people in
organizations should try to
understand the perspective
of others.
• Tolerance: learning to accept
all aspects of another
person’s beliefs or behavior.
• Willingness to communicate:
initiate two-way
communication between
people.
 Organizational Approaches

• Organizational policies that an

organization adopts to affect directly
and indirectly how people are treated.
• Organizational practices through
benefits packages and flexible work
hours.
• In addition, making sure that all
committees and executive teams are
diverse.
 Toward the Multicultural Organization
• An organization that has
achieved high levels of
diversity is able to
capitalize fully on the
advantages of diversity
and has few diversity-
related problems.
• Few, if any organizations
have become truly
multicultural.
• More and more
organizations are
moving in this direction.
How Diversity and Multiculturalism Promote
Competitive Advantage

Resource
Cost
Acquisition
argument
argument

Creativity Competitive Marketing

argument Advantage argument

Systems Problem-
Flexibility Solving
argument argument
Characteristics of multicultural
organizations:
•Pluralism

•Structural integration

•Informal network integration

•Absence of prejudice and discrimination

•Minimum intergroup conflict

 Multiculturalism as introductory to
monoculturalism

Multiculturalism, as generally understood, refers to a theoretical

approach and a number of policies adopted in Western nation-
states, which had seemingly achieved a de facto single national
identity during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many nation-states in
Africa, Asia, and the Americas are culturally diverse, and are
'multi-cultural' in a descriptive sense. In some, communalism is a
major political issue. The policies adopted by these states often
have parallels with multicultural-ist policies in the Western world,
but the historical background is different, and the goal may be a
mono-cultural or mono-ethnic nation-building- for instance in the
Malaysian government's attempt to create a 'Malaysian race' by
2020.
  Multiculturalism in some countries

German immigrants in Quebec

Hungarian and Romanian language newspapers
City in 1911
published in Cluj (Transylvania,Romania).
  Multiculturalism in some countries

Mulberry Street, along which Manhattan's

Political cartoon on Canada's multicultural
Little Italy is centered. Lower East Side, circa
identity, from 1911
1900.
  Multiculturalism in some countries

Monument to Multiculturalism by
Francesco Pirelli in Toronto, Canada. Four
identical sculptures are located in Buffalo
City, South Africa; Changchun, China; An anti-discrimination poster in a Hong Kong
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Sydney, Australia. subway station. Circa. 2005
 Affirmative Action:
First and Second Generations

Segregation Affirmative Action Multiculturalism

(1st generation)

nondiscrimination Affirmative Action

(2nd generation)

The above diagram illustrates the progression of organizations

from the stage of segregation to that of multiculturalism. The two
generations of Affirmative Action are distinguished by the issues
that prevail during each generation
 Distinguish between two generations
First Generation
focus on numbers
crisis orientation
resistance to proactively
social issues
racial & sexual hostility
trust
technical competence
evaluation
upward mobility
involvement & accountability
dual roles
fear of backlash
organizational legitimacy
sex & color blindness
sex & color exaggeration
isolation of Affirmative Action
Second Generation
critical mass
"racism & sexism are dead"
residual stereotypes
retention & career
development career
disillusionment
implementing
accountability role of white
male managers new
backlash issues
legitimate discussion of
racial & sexual issues
constituency
racism vs. sexism
Affirmative Action and
organizational development
 Conclusion

Application of the principles of multicultural organizations and

of multicultural management helps to release the creative
energies of all employees (managers and non-managers).This
enables them to concentrate on achieving the goals of their
organization in a multicultural environment, rather than having
to get the work done and goals achieved despite organizational
hindrances resulting from work force diversity. An organization
that fails to manage itself multiculturally when its work force
and environment