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Assignment Final Research Paper and Presentation
Prepare and deliver a 20-minute presentation of 8 to 12 PowerPoint® slides that is based upon your research paper and includes presenter’s notes.
Final Research Paper Outline
Topic – To forecast possible cultural changes inside Worldwide
Telecommunications, Inc., prepare a study analyzing how a multicultural workforce might affect teamwork and communications in large companies.
Introduction
– “A diverse workforce fosters creativity and innovation.” (Okoro & Washington, 2012)
– People from different cultures can bring a wealth of knowledge to an organization.
– Most companies welcome the opportunity to expand work staff with different cultures as they recognize the potential for increased productivity and earnings
– As the workforce becomes more global and culturally diverse, these organizations will be hard pressed to effectively communicate.
– Business organizations and academic institutions will be successful only to the extent that they embrace workforce diversity. (Okoro & Washington, 2012)
Thesis statement: Having a culturally diverse workforce fosters creativity and innovation while helping the organization communicate effectively internally and externally.
Primary Subject 1: Why are culturally diverse workforces important?
– The business economy is growing and an important aspect is globalization.
– With the increase in technology, our awareness of other cultures is increasing. We are starting to be more accepting of cultural differences.
– This is especially true in business; we are starting to work with customers at a global scale. Having a culturally diverse workforce helps achieve that.
– When we work with other cultures internally, we start to understand and appreciate the cultural differences.
– When you have customers in other cultures, that knowledge and appreciate will go a long way towards being successful in business.
Primary Subject 2: How will a culturally diverse team affect teamwork and communication in our company?
– An article by Adam Vaccaro (2014) states that diverse teams create better work. This is due to each person being from different backgrounds and carrying a different perspective.
– Teams that are diverse include people that are located in different cities and different backgrounds. These people will usually have differing opinions and perspectives, depending on where they are located.
– With a team like this, communication and teamwork will be much different as the employees will likely be remote or work in offices around the globe.
– Remote teams can communicate effectively, if given the proper tools. With the Internet and all different selections of software, it is very feasible to have an efficient remote team of employees.
– Teamwork for these teams will involved an increased level of communication and will require them to collaborate frequently on projects. Due to the different cultures and backgrounds for each individual, they all will offer a lot of creative ideas.
– There is the possibility for member’s with differing opinions to clash. There is a study by Roy Chua, an organizational behavior professor at Harvard, shows that “multicultural teams bring many benefits to an organization—provided the workplace is harmonious”. (Vaccaro, 2014)
– Team members will likely have different ethnicities; some prefer direct communication while others may communicate indirectly. This would cause some team members to ignore the indirect communication and miss important information. (Duggan, 2014)
– Another important aspect is time management. Different cultures can view time management differently. People coming from high-context cultures will have loose deadlines and focus on indirect messaging. People from low-context cultures will typically follow a tight schedule and be more direct when they are communicating.
– Employees or team members that have that understanding will more likely accept the cultural differences and be more willing to collaborate with one another.
– Having effective teamwork and communication on a multicultural team is hard work. Managers focusing on helping the team members become aware of the cultural differences will help ease friction in the team and create a harmonious environment.
Primary Subject 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of a Multicultural Workforce
o Advantages
? Fosters creativity and innovation
? Promotes positive work environment
? Increased problem solving
? Broader coverage
? Company image
o Disadvantages
? Can affect employees ability to communicate and work on a team productively
? Enhanced risk of discrimination
? Management time and cost due to employee complaints
Primary Subject 4: Ways to help multicultural workforces work well together
– Take time to understand one another
– Cultural awareness workshops
– Seminars
– Online Tools
– Recognize different cultures behavior patterns to ensure information isn’t being missed
Sources:
1. Why Diverse Teams Create Better Work by Adam Vaccaro (2014) http://www.inc.com/adam-vaccaro/diversity-and-performance.html
2. Okoro, E. & Washington, M. (2012). Workforce diversity and organizational communication: Analysis of human capital performance and productivity. Journal of Diversity Management.,7(1), 57-62
3. How a Multicultural Workforce Can Affect Teamwork & Communications in Large Companies by Tara Duggan. (2014) http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/multicultural-workforce-can-affect-teamwork-communications-large-companies-25109.html
4. Intercultural Communication: The Disadvantages of a Multicultural Workforce by Sara Nguyen. http://nguthith.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-disadvantages-of-multicultural.html
5. Greenberg, J. (2004). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions. Retrieved from http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefits- challenges-solutions.asp
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