Managing Cultural Diversity

MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY by Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Managing Cultural Diversity PAGEREF _Toc965302 \h 4Background PAGEREF _Toc965303 \h 4Starbucks: Cultural Diversity PAGEREF _Toc965304 \h 5Research Purpose PAGEREF _Toc965305 \h 6Research Objectives PAGEREF _Toc965306 \h 6Research Methodology PAGEREF _Toc965307 \h 7Primary research PAGEREF _Toc965308 \h 7Secondary Data PAGEREF _Toc965309 \h 7Trustworthiness of Sources PAGEREF _Toc965310 \h 7Ethical Issues PAGEREF _Toc965311 \h 8Research Limitations PAGEREF _Toc965312 \h 8Findings PAGEREF _Toc965313 \h 8Discussion PAGEREF _Toc965314 \h 9Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc965315 \h 9 Abstract The world today has embraced globalisation than ever before with countries and organisations becoming more integrated and creating opportunities for people to grow. The global economy has seen organisations traverse national and regional borders to become multinational corporations serving across the globe to a multicultural and ethnically diverse society. Managers and business executives have continued to elicit interest and need to understand how a cross-cultural workforce influences the working environment and employee productivity. Organisational leader, managers and the human resource management (HRM) department play an essential role by ensuring that workforce diversity helps an organisation to achieve a competitive edge and not an impediment. The purpose of this research is to establish the relationship between workforce diversity and its management in the workplace. The study is concerned with understanding how the functioning of the company’s management and HR practices influence the management of cultural diversity; company initiatives employed by the company to manage diversity and the current state of diversity management in Starbucks. Research findings indicate that the initiatives of the HR and the management are critical in determining the success of diversity management strategies and policies. Managing Cultural Diversity Background The world today has embraced globalisation than ever before with countries and organisations becoming more integrated and creating opportunities for people to grow. The global economy has seen organisations traverse national and regional borders to become multinational corporations serving across the globe to a multicultural and ethnically diverse society. Consequently, organisations have put in place an increasingly culturally diverse workforce constituting a variety of ethical and cultural segments while operating in different parts of the globe. Following the global cultural diversity fueled by globalisation, managers and business executives are learning and adopting various approaches to incorporate local culture and promote cultural diversity in the organisational citizenly. Managers and business executives have continued to elicit interest and need to understand how a cross-cultural workforce influences the working environment and employee productivity. The impact of workforce diversity is critical to the success of any business in the world today. According to Kossek, Lobel and Brown (2005), workforce diversity appreciates the global culture that people are different and live in different ways manifested openly or not. Realities of workforce diversity reflect differences on sex, age, race, marital status, sexual orientation, cultural and ethnic differences, religion and disability. Cultural diversity issues differ in every country and society thus different corporations adopt different approaches in implementing workforce diversity management in their workforce. In the west, multiculturalism is a significant dimension of diversity that cannot be ignored. Multiculturalism in the Western countries is promoted by the ever-growing influx of international migrants from various countries thus possessing unique and diverse cultural characteristics. To understand the significance of cultural diversity in the workforce and how companies are incorporating the practice in their strategy, we need to understand the meaning of diversity. Dundon and Rollinson (2011) define diversity as a deliberate business approach that seeks to employ and retain workers from different cultural backgrounds in the society to an organisation’s workforce in a bid to leverage the firm’s competitiveness. In order to succeed and remain competitive in a changing business environment, businesses are ensuring that their work processes are not disrupted by creating a workforce from diverse cultural backgrounds. Organisational leader, managers, and human resource management (HRM) department play an essential role by ensuring that workforce diversity helps an organisation to achieve a competitive edge and not an impediment. Research on employee diversity has consistently displayed similar results that if implemented and embraced correctly, cultural diversity brings organizational success, increases a company’s competitiveness through improved innovation, enables companies to access new markets and can employ the best qualified suited for the job (Allen et al., 2004; McCuiston, Ross Wooldridge and Pierce, 2004). Cultural diversity brings the richness in people into the business. By incorporating diversity into the workforce, an organisation is introduced to multiple belief systems relevant to different people, diverse understanding and views of the world while getting access to unique information that can be used to improve the operation of the company. Starbucks: Cultural Diversity By the close of 2013, Starbucks employed an excess of 277,000 full-time employees globally making it one of the largest multinational corporations globally (Starbucks Statistics, 2019; (Forbes.com, Starbucks Corp, 2019). As such, the company management is bestowed an enormous responsibility of creating a conducive work environment and organisational culture suitable for the entire workforce. By instituting an effective cultural diversity strategy that incorporates all levels, starting from the corporate executives, company managers to retail store workers, Starbucks has managed to transverse national boundaries to have its presence in over 70 countries (Starbucks Statistics, 2019). Maintaining such a large workforce requires the integration of the best industry strategies that emphasises and improves employee diversity. On work and culture, Starbucks postulates the significance of cultural diversity towards business success. Business executives continue to research and implement the best policies and programs that attract and retain employees from varying cultural backgrounds into the workforce. Starting its operations in 1971, Starbucks has seen its success, growth and expansion thrive to more than 22, 000 retails retail stores operating in over 70 countries (Starbucks, Company profile, 2019). The success is attributed to the company’s respect for people values, diversity and inclusion. Achieving this success can be traced to the company’s integration of employee diversity and incorporation into the company’s leadership strategies (Starbucks, Diversity and Inclusion, 2019). Deliberate business-centric decisions in hiring processes have enabled Starbucks to integrate into multiple cultures throughout the world where their operations thrive. Starbucks shares a cordial relationship with its workforce signifying mutual respect and inclusion. As provided by the company’s Business and Ethics provision, company employees are regarded as partners in the business and are considered critical asset towards the success of the company (Starbucks, Business Ethics and Compliance, 2018). By valuing culture and emulating employee diversity, Starbucks continues to build and grow strategic relationships that reflect on the rich diversity and inclusion values. With a focus on the growing cultural diversity, Starbucks has included cultural diversity as a principle of the company. The guiding principle states that “together, we embrace diversity to create a place where each of us can be ourselves. We always treat each other with respect and dignity. And we hold each other to that standard” (Starbucks, Business Ethics and Compliance, 2011, p. 2). Additionally, Starbucks has extended the diversity and inclusion strategies to include other business partners and associates such as Multicultural Food and Hospitality Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and National Council of La Raza (Morais et al., 2014). Effective implementation of different diversities in the workforce and most importantly, knowledge of the best ways to manage cultural diversity and inclusivity, will determine the success or failure of an or...