High Performance Diverse Workplace

Question: Critically analyse and discuss the varied communication challenges that leaders should expect to handle while managing cultural diversity in the organizations in Australia. Answer: 1. Introduction Since the workforce around the globe is becoming highly global as well as more diverse culturally, the leaders within the organization are facing communication challenges as they need to communicate in effective manner interpersonally, intercultural as well as within the groups (Okoro Washinton, 2012). Due to rise in the internationalization of organizations as well as global competitiveness, the management of human diversity is a daily challenging routine for the major businesses (Lauring, 2011). Therefore this essay critically analyses and discusses the varied communication challenges that leaders should expect to handle while managing cultural diversity in the organizations in Australia. Using thorough academic literature relevant to the topic as well as publically available data this essay will also find out that how the leaders can successfully handle and address the ethical issues that arise in Australian organizations because of cultural diversity. Finally this essay will critically analyse an optimal leadership mix of styles or behaviours that should be aligned while managing culturally diverse workplaces. The leadership styles that would be finally suggested should be highly flexible and such that they can be adopted in appropriate manner by the organizations in Australia. Thus with the help of this essay we will try to build an understanding regarding management of multicultural workforce as well as behavioural practices by focussing on critical strategic issues faced by leadership as well as employee behaviour. 2. Communication Challenges Encountered by a Leader in Culturally Diverse Organization While analysing the strategies of business communication it has been found that effective group as well as interpersonal communication is very much important for the organizational success as well as within the organizations because of growing workforce diversity along with intercultural relationships existing within businesses (Bovee Thill, 2008) . There have been studies that show that if the workforce diversity consequences are ignored it certainly impacts the performance along with the productivity of the organization and finally it results in undermining the overall objectives of the business performance. For example Goldman Sachs, an international organization operating in Australia too employ more than 30,000 employees who represent more than 160 nationalities and the discussions in Goldman Scahs in relation to workforce diversity is not just anymore a domestic issue rather it has become an international challenge (Kanu, 2008) . Multiculturism is very vital aspect of the diversity existing in the Australian workforce and as the research suggests the organizations in Australia are one of the most culturally diverse ones across the globe (Dunn et al 2001; Lewis, French 2000). During the year 2012-13 , due to the net immigration a large number of population size was added to the Australian territories as well as states and during 2012, 27.7 percent out of the total population Australia was born out of the country ( ABS 2013). It is not just the population belonging to varied cultures is increasing but it is the level of diversity which is also increasing along with the regular immigration waves. Although, in the constantly changing multicultural environment, good communication is critically very important, but this intercultural communication also creates a tough challenge for the leaders at their workplaces (Sadri Tran, 2002) . Managing diversity for the leaders is much more than just acknowledging the differences that exist between the people. Thus studies show that it is very much important that the business communicator needs to adapt to the rapidly changing responsibilities as well as the changing work relationships (Flatley, Rentz, Lentz, 2012) . In current highly diverse workforce there are several communication challenges that the leaders have to face and these include skills, experiences, attitude of employees towards work, traditions, outlooks and backgrounds and all these communication issues definitely impact the communication at the individual workplaces (Bovee Thill, 2008) . If the organizations face the challenges due to diverse workforce like coexistence w ith their business partners as well as the community, the managers as well as the leaders have to face the challenges like motivating the culturally diverse employees as well as creating harmony amongst the workers (Okoro Washinton, 2012). Globalization along with, economic improvements in Australian business has lead to rapid and much more internationalization of the organizations in Australia. Thus in the Australian organizations that are running globally like Qantas, Sainsbury , etc. effective cross cultural communication is being required for running the businesses in efficient as well as smooth manner (Duggan, 2013). However the leaders or the managers have to face several challenges, issues as well as conflicts while handling the employees who belong to diverse cultures, social backgrounds as well as have different habits. In such cases cross cultural competency emerges as very vital and critical tool for the leaders in order to manage such challenges that impact employee performance (Matveev Nelson, 2004) . The varied dimensions present in the national culture can also give rise to difficulties that give rise to cross cultural communication conflicts. The five main cultural orientations that have been emphasised by scholars and that also impact the cross cultural competencies are: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; performance orientation; individualism along with the richness of the communication context (Matveev Nelson, 2004) . Nations like Australia, United States and Sweden show lower power distance orientation and interactions that occur between employees or managers belonging to different power distance orientation can result in dissatisfaction in either of the two groups or parties (Klimina, 2011). Language also acts as a major communication barrier for leaders while managing culturally diverse employees in an organization as it can result in miscommunication or misunderstanding amongst the staff in the workplace. Mostly misunderstandings are bound to occur when the leader o r manager and the employees are not speaking the same language. Since both the leader and the employees belong to different cultures and make use of totally different languages, so particular level of language consistency while speaking or interacting is required to be on same platform in order to avoid miscommunication. Such kind of miscommunication can result in problems so as to achieve mutual consent regarding certain issues that are conflicting by nature and finally result in dissent as well as dispute, along with conflicts as well as negative emotions (O'Leary Weathington, 2006) . In some situations non-verbal communication challenges also might arise for leaders while managing cultural diversity in Australian firms. Non-verbal communication is considered to be very vital part of business communication as the leader needs to find out the non-verbal clues in case the verbal messages are vague or unclear, mainly in the case when different kind of languages are being involved. Different kind of methodologies are used by every culture for understanding the postures , touch, silence, physical appearances, gestures as well as emotional expressions of the employees. For example in Anglo-Australian culture, all through the communication maintaining continuous eye contact is a norm and it is considered to be a sign of honesty as well as indicates deeper level of interest in the topic of discussion, but in case of various other culture for example in Japan, maintaining this kind of eye contact while communicating can be taken as a sign of disrespect. Thus the difference s in analysing as well as understanding the non-verbal communication by the managers or leaders can thus result in misunderstanding , on the other hand differences in interpretation can result in conflicts or can also result in escalation of the conflicts that already exist (LeBaron, 2003). 3. Leaders Addressing Ethical Issues Related to Cultural Diversity in Australian Organizations Leadership is considered to be a very vital part of every organization but with more technological developments and growing globalization the capacity as well as functions of leaders are turning out to be more complicated (Punnett, 2004) . Therefore the cross-cultural managers need to visualise this change in the form of a challenge as well as a unique opportunity both for individual development as well as beneficial for organizational growth. Along with this to cope up with these rapid transformation leaders should respond in rather very swift manner to the effects of globalization, technology as well as demographics , so that they can offer specific development of job skill in relation to work ethics, continuous learning as well as global leadership (Aggarwa, 2011) . Global leaders in such cases needs to develop mainly their interpersonal skills so that they can deal in effective manner with racial conflicts that might occur in culturally diverse workforce as well as simultaneously keep on developing individuals along with groups at their workplace (Byrd, 2007) . 3.1 Cultural Diversity and Leadership One of the highly important variables that the leaders need to consider while tackling the culturally diverse workforce in Australian organizations is the cultural context (Gutierrez, Spencer, Zhu, 2012) . Communication styles, work ethics, management labour relationships along with behaviours keep on varying form one nation to the other. That is why leadership competence is being visualised or perceived in different manner in different countries (Kowske Anthony, 2007) . For example in high context nations like Japan, South Korea etc. the staff prefers more to take indirect messages and they depend more on nonverbal codes , whereas the employees belonging to low context culture nations like Australia, United Kingdom etc. the employees prefer to communicate in direct manner and try to develop or inculcate maximum information through messages (Hackman Johnson, 2004) . ifferent kinds of cultural groups in the organizations nurture different cultural expectations and thus their expectations from their leaderships are also different and this certainly impacts the managers as well as the employee behaviours in the organization (Strand, 2011). Thus the employees know very well the importance of their leaders positive response towards individual differences of cultures without any personal bias (Nguyen Umemoto, 2012) . With the help of such actions the leaders are capable of fulfilling effectively their tasks towards development of a multicultural workforce along with a strategic foresight that breeds organizational innovativeness. The leaders should be objective while practicing leadership without any biases or making any assumptions. The leaders should learn to lead by example so that the diver workforce starts believing in ethical behaviours. This can be done by giving due respect to the differences amongst others or by keeping aside any personal bi ases, and this needs to be seriously followed by leaders in the organization (Roy, 2012) . 3.2 Diversity Management for Ethical Issues The biggest challenge in current scenarios for managers is to manage the rising diversity at the workplace (Mujtaba, 2010) . One of important steps that the leaders can do for making and creating a better work environment is treating the employees in fair manner as well as in a just manner on the basis of their actual performance or individual merits, without even considering about the age, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion of the employees at diverse workplace (Lundrigan, Tangsuvanich, Wu, Mujtaba, 2012) . For example Starbucks a global organization has highly diverse workforce and is considered as one of the most ethical organization across the globe (Ethisphere, 2013) . It strives and creates a work culture that not just values but also respects the spirit of inclusion as well as diversity. In order to do so it has integrated both inclusion and diversity in its leaderships core competencies. It is expected from all its leaders that they will demonstrate inclusion in so me way or the other (Starbucks, 2014) . Diversity can be effectively managed with the help of managers as people get directly impacted as well as persuaded by the other people belonging to higher status (Jones George, 2011) . Cultural competence is very vital in order to manage diversity in workplace. One of the ethical aspect that the managers in Starbucks, Australia practice is they treat each and every employee without even considering their gender, age , religion or ethnicity etc. One best method that leaders adopt for gaining cultural competence is to self-assess them with the help of cultural competence tool. Leaders can also make use of an activity that is to organize events especially for socialising with the workforce so as to interact as well as to understand them in better manner. For example in order to show the ethical aspect of Starbucks towards not just employees but also towards partners, suppliers , environment and the customers , it started CAFE practices , a program that Sets basic social , environment al and quality criteria, which Starbucks verifies (Elder, Lister, Dauvergne, 2014 , p. 80). It is basically the culture which is depicted by the upper management that impacts the behaviour of its managers as well as its employees all across the organization (Hinkin Tracey, 2010) . The upper management at IBM Australia also adopts a culture that truly embraces the culture that allows its partners to take a compressed week, thus giving them an option of working more hours in a day, thus fewer workdays. The managers at IBM are asked to consider ethical values as well as practices while managing the workforce and partners. For example while recruitment of individuals both the managers as well as partners play an active role while choosing their future partners (Marques, 2008) . This helps in making sure that there is less bias whereas more opinions during the process of selection. The leaders are also given effective training in most of the Australian Organizations like Woolworths and Coles. 4. An Optimal Mix of Leadership Styles / Behaviours The influencing process practiced by the leaders as well as the followers in order to achieve their organizational objectives successfully with the help of change is called leadership (Lussier Achua, 2010) . Equally important is implementation of right leadership style in various conditions so as to get the best outcomes. In case of diverse teams, people belong to different age, sex, sexual orientation, race geographic regions etc., thus it becomes really challenging for the leaders to find and implement the best leadership style, which works out best for everyone. A leader plays major role in implementation of effective culture within an organization. Diverse companies do have certain advantages, but in case the leader does not do their duties in right way it can cause certain issues. For example Glass Ceiling is seen in many organizations where women and minority are stopped or a barrier is created for them to reach top position in leadership, but by adopting this leadership model these organizations restrict their chances of success. For example Mrs. Indra Nooyi, is the best example of topmost leadership in PepsiCo who has emerged as worlds 100 most powerful womens list as CEO of the company (Paulien, 2012). 4.1 Path Goal Leadership The theory of Path-Goal Leadership is considered to be best for managing culturally diverse workforce as in this the main focus is being goal oriented for the organization. The leaders adopting Path-goal theory are found to be highly flexible, giving directions, supportive and believe in rewarding their followers. Thus such leaders make their work teams productive, cooperative and focussed through proper encouragement. Such leaders help in removal of the barriers and regularly keep on motivating the employees; this finally helps in improving and increasing the work effectiveness and work satisfaction along with group effectiveness. It has been found that path-goal styles of leadership has statistically positive as well as significant relationship with the group effectiveness, of diverse workforce and Instrumental leadership shows the strongest correlation . Thus it can be said that path-Goal leadership is the best for the leaders to handle culturally diverse work teams (Dixon Hart, 2010) . For example Mikael Ohlsson, IKEA a Swedish home products organization mentions that his leadership style in relation to diversity is being vision driven when looking from business point of view , but its foundation is value driven. On the same pitch Brian Moynihan, Bank of America leader, believes that leadership style for managing cultural diversity in Australia is linked to customer satisfaction (Groysberg Connolly, 2013). According to him if the inclusion scores along with internal diversity scores are stronger, it will make the employees feel much precious as well as valued and thus they will be serving the customers better and finally the organization will be successful. Leadership style that most of the CEOs support for promoting diverse culture is inclusive culture. The one in which the employees get enough chances to contribute towards the organizations success as their authentic selves, where their talents are being leveraged and they are respected along with receiving a se nse of connectivity. According to David Thodey of Australian telecommunication giant Telstra, an inclusive culture is the one where irrespective of your caste, creed, gender, race, physical ability or sexual orientation, the employee gets to fulfil their personal objectives by simply aligning them with the objectives of the company. The leaders should value the employees for the way they contribute towards the business (Groysberg Connolly, 2013). 4.2 Culturally Linked Styles of Leadership There exist several explicit differences in cultures, mainly in terms of attitudes, behaviours and values exhibited by the individuals and this kind of divergence does impact the leaderships in organizations (Judge Piccolo, 2004). Transformational leadership is being more valued one in collectivist culture as the subordinates correlate with it more and they are attracted towards the transformational leadership traits, mainly the traits that are more focussed on achieving collectivistic organizational goals as well as sharing a common mission at their workplace. Transformational and transactional leadership theories find a universal application across various cultures as they can adapt to different settings of different cultures (Avolio Bass, 2004) . The Australian leaders show more preference towards transformational leadership style. Leadership being a process in which others are being influenced and make them agree regarding what is to be done and how it can be finished in effect ive manner, the behaviour exhibited by the managers impacts the outcomes. In Australian context both autonomy and freedom are very important, thus the transformational features of leadership style does serve this purpose. The lower power distance indicates a more egalitarian leadership approach to be adopted in Australian organization (Holt, Bjorklund, Green, 2009). Moreover the cultural context of Australian organizations depicts an equal as well as harmonious leader-subordinate relationship as the role of leader or manager is more of a coordinator. The leaders in Australian organizations encourage direct disagreement and promote open discussions while resolving any issues or disputes in order to avoid the risk of being misinterpreted. Since the managers as well as the employees grow in egalitarian business environment prevailing in Australian organizations, thus indicating that the managers are just perceived as someone who just needs to delegate and coordinate the work at workplace. Moreover the leaders belonging to egalitarian cultures are more bothered about the progress and they support individualism. Thus they are more attentive being visionary leaders and give intellectual stimulation to subordinates while articulating the goals and they relate with the employees as well. 5. Conclusion In most of the Australian organizations cultural diversity is very critical to achieve higher productivity as well as better work performance, thus both the success of the company along with the alignment of culturally diverse workforce are some of the challenges that needs to be handled by the leaders. There are mainly communication challenges that the leaders face while handling workforce diversity. There are several challenges that leaders have to tackle in cross-cultural communication because significant amount of cultural differences amongst the communicators can end up in miscommunication. Miscommunication or sometimes misinterpretations can happen amongst the managers and their employees as they belong to different nationalities or come from varied ethnic backgrounds (Okoro , 2012). The leaders in current scenario very well know that diversity of workforce helps in innovation and results in better decision making, which finally results in better growth. That is why effective leaders are very well aware that particular skills are very important for developing a diverse and successful workforce. Thus the managers or leaders should understand the discrimination as well as the impacts of discrimination; secondly the leaders need to recognize their personal prejudices as well as biases. Diversity is not just related to differences amongst the people or groups in organizations, rather it is about the differences in individuals. Every individual is unique in itself and that person does not represent or speak for entire group and thus the leaders should be willing to change the organization if need be. The success of diversity management is relying on the capability of manager to analyse what is best in favour of the organization based on the teamwork as well as the dyn amics of workplace. With organizations becoming more globalised, the cultural diversity amongst the employees is on the rise, thus the leaders should find out the appropriate strategy that can enhance their teams productivity. The leadership style that needs to be followed is the Path-Goal leadership style, where everyone needs to value as well as respect the existing differences in cultural, while learning from each other. They should adapt towards the diverse team members and should try to best meet the organizational objectives. Transformational leadership styles are also considered to be applicable in case of culturally diverse organizations. 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