Interpersonal Skills at Work
Diversity has become a norm, not an exception, in current workspace. By diversity is meant not only ethnic diversity – only one common form of diversity – but all differences between and across workers in a give workplace. One given organizational context is said to be diverse if, in addition to ethnic and racial backgrounds, workers differ along a broad range of variables including, for example, education, age, gender, professional and social backgrounds and, increasingly more recently, personal interests. Indeed, one common development in current business ecosystem in recent years is a form of diversity informing how workers interact. More specifically, inter-generation collaboration / conflict between Generation Y (Millennials) and Generation X (baby boomers). The differences in skill portfolios, professional experiences and, not least, age represent major challenges – or assets, if properly managed – an employer needs to properly address.
The whiteness of a given workplace, as noted in Post # 1, is no longer a norm. Indeed, cultural diversity has come to be a basic requirement for existing and potential workers. The increasing emphasis on diversity at workplace is justified by a broad range of reasons. First, a diverse workforce is capable of contributing to a given business situation more innovatively since workers of different cultural / ethnic backgrounds possess differential mind frameworks and world visions and hence a broader repertoire of innovative ideas made possible only by diverse world visions and mindsets. Second, a diverse workforce is a critical asset for organizations operating in a global context. More specifically, as more and more companies conduct business in more diverse contexts beyond immediate – and, for that matter, familiar – context, employing a diverse workforce does not only address immediate business needs for existing and potential clients but also, more significantly, helps a company expand more competently. Third, a diverse workforce enables workers to exchange experiences, professional or personal at workplaces or beyond, an exchange which does not only enable more effective interpersonal communication between co-workers but also, more significantly, makes cross-cultural communication an integral component of corporate culture. Fourth, a more diverse workforce helps management develop more agile and cultural sensitive workforce. More specifically, by catering for different human capital needs a company's management is better able to develop more innovative, customizable management styles responsive to a more diverse workforce.
The case for gender, as stated in Post #1, is another critical consideration of diversity in current workplace, particularly in a clinical context. Given how male patients can be wary of a female healthcare provider, offering gender diversity in healthcare providers should not only make patients be more in a familiar, comfort zone but will also, more significantly, enable healthcare service providers be more competent, both culturally and professionally, to deliver healthcare service to best of a provider's ability.
Thus, diversity at workplace has confirmed benefits for both employers and staff. These benefits, as shown, help leverage performance in short- and long runs. Not least, by promoting a corporate culture of diversity, staff morale, particularly for "minority" workers, is heighted and possible conflicts are more effectively managed, if not eliminated.
Post #2 Response
Being raised in a "parochial" cultural context, one is apt to encounter professional and personal challenges in more open, culturally diverse context. The "narrowness" of a given isolated socio-cultural impacts on cultural receptiveness, so to speak, of an individual embarking on a more diverse professional and/or personal journey. Notably, a less culturally diverse education or social acculturation is apt to narrow one's own world vision and make her more resistant to different frameworks and mindsets. Second, one is more likely to face uphill challenges in joining a more diverse community, in a professional or social context, as she struggles to adapt to a cultural makeup she has not been used to in an earlier phase. Third, a less culturally competent individual is more likely to show unsatisfactory performance in a professional setting or rejection by others in social contexts.
Conversely, growing up in a more diverse community could result in cultural embarrassments for an individual used to openness and receptiveness. For example, a more diverse individual in a less diverse context (e.g. a small company in a college town can have difficulty interacting with a closely knit cohort of co-workers well known to one another but less open to communication, let alone active interaction, to an outsider. Notwithstanding being "co-workers", a more culturally diverse individual remains – in a corporate culture informed deeply by implicit knowledge of do's and don’ts for individual and group behavior – an outcast, an object of suspicion one should not be open to. This state of "closed lip" is further intensified in hours beyond regular working hours. Being an outsider, a more culturally open person in a parochial context is more likely to be unable to have proper social fulfillment as her actions are constantly monitored and, for others, becoming more and more a source for uneasiness.
