Cultural Diversity in Australia - Case Study Example

Cultural diversity Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Table of contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………..3 1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3 2.0 Factors promoting diversity in Australia…………………………………………………….3 2.1 Globalization…………………………………………………………………………3 2.2 Technology…………………………………………………………………………..4 2.3 Cultural diversity…………………………………………………………………….4 2.4 International agreements…………………………………………………………….4 3.0 Positive impacts of cultural diversity in Australia…………………………………………...4 3.1 Builds strong culture…………………………………………………………………4 3.2 Promotes cultural understanding…………………………………………………….5 3.3 Helps in making concrete decisions………………………………………………….5 4.0 Negative impacts of cultural diversity……………………………………………………….6 4.1 Difficult in managing people…………………………………………………………6 4.2 Leads to frustration…………………………………………………………………..6 4.3 Leads to low morale………………………………………………………………….6 5.0 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………7 6.0 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………7 References………………………………………………………………………………………..8 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………9 Executive Summary This report was written to provide an insight understanding of the cultural diversity in Australia. There have been cultural clashes in the Australian community and this led to this report to find out more about the cultural diversity in Australia. The information was gathered from different sources such as books. The positive impacts of cultural diversity include better results by organizations and also promote appreciation of other people’s culture. The negative impacts include difficulty in managing a diversified team and difficult in motivating a diversified team. In order to fully understand the cultural impacts more research should be done to determine the concepts of cultural diversity. 1.0 Introduction Cultural diversity is the aspect in which there are many cultures in one place. It is the multi culture practice as opposed to monoculture. It includes different societal values and different religious beliefs (Asimeng & Klien 2004. Globalization has led to increased cultural diversity because people have migrated from their cultural backgrounds and have settled in the land of Australia. As they migrate, they come with their cultural beliefs. This has led to cultural diversity in Australia as shown in appendix 1 below. There are many reports which have tried to address the cultural issues in Australia (Asimeng & Klien 2004). This report will use qualitative method to gather and analyze the data collected. The objectives of this report are to find out the factors which have led to cultural diversity in Australia, the importance of cultural diversity and to find out the challenges of diversity in Australia. This report of cultural diversity will be based on the Australian territory. This report will discuss both impacts and provide recommendations about cultural diversity in Australia. 2.0 Factors promoting diversity in Australia 2.1 Globalization To start with, the first factor is globalization. This is the factors which has enabled people to transact trade globally. People move from one place to another to conduct businesses and in the process, they interact with other traders from other cultures and learn to appreciate the cultures of other people (Adu-Febiri 2006). For instance, traders from India came and settled in Australia and began to learn the Australian culture so that they can understand each other well. This led to Australian people also learning the new culture of the migrants. 2.2 Technology Another factor which has led to cultural diversity in Australia is the changes in technology. The high rising technological advancements have changed the way people communicate in Australia. The language used in the social sites especially by young people who interact globally (Adu-Febiri 2006). In order for people from different cultures to communicate with one another, they should have a common way of communicating. In this regard, the Australian people have changed the language they use in communication so that they can be understood by other people. 2.3 Cultural diversity Many managers of organizations are contemplating on the best ways they can improve the performance of their organization. One way is to improve the cultural diversity as this will help to improve the reputation of the company globally (Adu-Febiri 2006). An organization which has a global outlook will be able to attract and retain many customers. The Australian companies are practicing diversity thus other organizations are doing the same increasing the diversity in Australia. 2.4 International agreements Australia has entered into treaties with many countries especially for trade benefits. This has led to migration of people from country to another. Some people with different cultures have migrated and become Australian citizens. Through this migration, they move with their cultural system (Arredondo 2008). Due to this increased immigrants, the Australian culture has had multi cultures as opposed to Australian’s mono culture. The immigrants introduce new religions beliefs thus influencing the culture of Australia. 3.0 Positive impacts of cultural diversity in Australia 3.1 Builds strong structure Cultural diversity in Australia on the other hand has positive impacts on the community of Australia. To start with, it helps to build a strong culture which can be able to bring change in Australia. When people from different cultures work together, they can achieve better results than when there is no cultural diversity (Arredondo 2008). This has led to better achievement of goals and objectives by the Australian companies due to cultural diversity at workplaces and even in educational institutions. In addition cultural diversity leads to unique strengths which can benefit other communities. There is need to arrange of different ideas, customs and experiences in solving issues. This aspect can only be achieved when there is cultural diversity at workplaces and anywhere people interact (Arredondo 2008). Therefore cultural diversity helps to find better ways of doing things by borrowing some ideas from other communities and this has led to improved performance of the Australian economy. 3.2 Promotes cultural understanding Cultural diversity further enables people to understand culture of other people and learn to respect it. Learning other people’s culture helps to overcome and avoid racial and ethnic discrimination. In Australia, there are so many cultures and because of the interaction of different people with different cultures, discrimination has become something of the past because people have learnt to appreciate other people’s culture (Tricia 2006). Due to lack of cultural discrimination in Australia, people are working together and this has led to improved economic standards of the country. 3.3 Helps in making concrete decisions In addition, cultural diversity helps in making concrete decisions. When people from different cultures are involved in making decisions, the decisions made can be readily accepted by many stakeholders. This is because during decision making different parties were involved in decision making and they expressed how they will be affected by the decisions (Tricia 2006). This implies that the decisions made will be of good quality. Moreover, cultural diversity in Australia has led to equity in the Australia society. Appreciating other people’s culture goes hand in hand with equity and just. From the research which has been conducted in Australia, it has been found out that teachers who try and understand the culture of the students always perform better unlike when the teachers whoa re less concerned with the culture of the students (Tricia 2006). 4.0 Negative impacts of cultural diversity 4.1 Difficult in managing people Due to cultural diversity in Australia, it has been hard very difficult for the government of Australia to manage the people. This is because people behave in a way which is unexpected. Not only the government that faces hardships in managing people but also the organizations in Australia. Many managers are faced with the problem of managing their employees (Louise2010). There are so many cultures in an organization and it becomes hard for a manager to understand the norms of the employee. In this regard, it is hard to manage the behavior of the employee because he or she might behave in a way which is in conformity with his culture. 4.2 Leads to frustration Another challenge of cultural diversity in Australia is that it makes people to be frustrated because they cannot understand the new culture. Sometimes, the new culture in Australia may not make sense to the people of Australia. In this regard, it makes people angry (Louise2010). The government and the managers of various organizations find it hard to understand the new culture and as a result they get frustrated. The frustration comes in because the people of Australia cannot be able to interpret the new culture leading to frustration. 4.3 Promotes low morale It is also hard to motivate a team which is diversified. People get motivated differently in different cultures. For many organizations it has been a hard task to motivate the employees due to diversity. Some incentive might motivate people in one culture and offend other people in another culture (Louise2010). In this effect, it will be hard to motivate the employees in their organizations. This has led to poor motivation of the Australian companies. Moreover, it has been a challenge to improve the efficiency of people where there is cultural diversity. (Louise2010). Due to this cultural diversity, the efficiency of many Australian companies has been compromised as they are not efficient to meet the global demands. 5.0 Conclusion The main purpose of this report was to discuss the cultural diversity in Australia. The study in this report covered the Australian community and how the community has been affected by the cultural diversity. The factors which have led to cultural diversity in Australia include globalization, changes in technology, international trade and diversity at workplaces. The positive impacts of cultural diversity are that, it has built a strong community, has benefited the Australia community, it has helped to eliminate cultural discrimination and has helped to improve the economic status of the country. The negative impacts of cultural diversity include challenges in managing people, difficulty in motivating the people and it is hard to improve efficiency in diversified team. 6.0 Recommendations In order to fully understand the effects of cultural diversity, the cultural institutions or teams should conduct more research to understand the issues of cultural diversity. This will help to develop programs which will accommodate the diversity in culture. In addition, the government and the organizations should provide some opportunities for cultural diversity. This will help them to consider other cultures as equal and this will promote a favorable environment for all cultures in Australia. Moreover, the government and other institutions should develop a system to encourage people to understand and appreciate other people’s culture. This will help to eliminate any form of discrimination because of the cultural differences. References Asimeng L & Klien, A 2004, Is the diversity issue a non-issue in mainstream Academia? Multicultural Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 47-52. Adu-Febiri, F 2006, The destiny of cultural diversity in a globalized world. Review of Human Factor Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 30-64. Arredondo, P 2008, Using professional leadership to promote multicultural understanding And social justice. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 13-17. Louise, D 2010, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, McGraw Hill Tricia, S 2006, Building a High Scope Program: Multicultural Programs, London, Kogan Page. Appendix Picture 1: Cultural diversity group Read More