need help for my esl class please

4

Soeratman

Soeratman, Mary

ESL 33B

Dr. Carlisi

18 November 2016

Thesis Statement

It is important to raise awareness and emphasize the importance of cultural diversity in public relations industries and the workplace in order to open employers’ minds to multicultural employees, which would have a great impact on a company’s success.

Detailed Outline

I. Introduction

A. The importance of intercultural communication and cultural diversity are often neglected by employers and managers in the workplace.

1. A survey that was conducted revealed that PR industries are still operating on a traditional model of American workplace (Kotcher 6).

2. It is important for companies to realize that the importance of diversity in a workplace can no longer be ignored because the landscape of this nation is changing (Williams 14).

B. Thesis: The need for intercultural awareness and understanding in order to avoid misunderstanding and conflict.

II. Benefits of a more diverse workplace can bring various of positive effects towards a company.

A. Organizations must realize that their employees are essential for successful business operations and profit generation (Buckingham and Demetria 5).

1. Employees ability to be responsive and flexible will reflect in the success of the company.

2. Their difficulties being responsive and flexible will lead to failure of the company.

B. Having a more diverse workplace leads to bigger opportunities for the company.

1. This includes broader service range and variety of viewpoints from employees (Ward-Johnson 17).

a. A more diverse workplace helps companies to solve varieties of problems through variety of viewpoints (Ward-Johnson 17).

b. The company will also have a collection of skills to satisfy on-going demands from clients on a global basis (Ward-Johnson 17).

2. Research shows that diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth (Hewlett, Marshall and Sherbin).

a. Diversity unlocks innovation by creating an environment where “outside of the box” ideas are heard (Hewlett, Marshall and Sherbin).

b. Companies with 2-D diversity of employees are 45% more likely to report a growth in market share (Hewlett, Marshall and Sherbin).

III. Problems resulting from lack of diversity management in the workplace.

A. Companies hire multicultural candidates expecting them to forget their own ethnicity and language.

1. Companies forget that diversity is the crucial key to a companies’ success in this era (Ward-Johnson 15).

2. The English-only rule in the workplace impacted on social relationships between both fellow workers and community beyond the workplace (Rodriguez 1691).

a. The English-only rule separated the important public space of a workplace from the identity of the community in which it was situated in (Rodriguez 1692).

b. This rule also compromises the ability of minority language communities to sustain themselves (Rodriguez 1692).

B. Lacking diversity management within companies leads to negative effects because employers expect workers to adapt to American majority cultural norms.

1. Negative effects include tension between co-workers of differing gender, race, age, religion (Buckingham and Demetria 16).

2. Another effect includes the inability to attract and retain qualified individuals (Buckingham and Demetria 16).

C. Lacking diversity management within companies leads to negative effects because workplace relationships and work output will suffer.

1. Neglect in managing workplace diversity can have a negative effect on an organization’s productivity and efficiency (Buckingham and Demetria 16).

2. When people from diverse cultures are employed in similar workplace, it might lead to miscommunication and misperception.

a. Difference in cultural norms play a huge role in misconceptions between people from different ethnic backgrounds (Akhtar, Lodhi and Khan 84).

b. Differences in cultural values play a significant role in miscommunications between employees (Akhtar, Lodhi and Khan 95).

IV. Solutions for these issues is to raise workplace diversity management and intercultural communication training.

A. Several key components highlight the importance of workplace diversity management.

1. Equal employment opportunity which leads to creating a fair work environment for employees which also result in employees’ job satisfaction (Buckingham and Demetria 16).

a. Employees benefit from working in a fair workplace which is free from discrimination and has equal access to jobs, training and developmental opportunities (Buckingham and Demetria 17).

b. When employees are satisfied with their job their productivity stabilizes and leads to the increase in profit generation for the organization and its shareholders (Buckingham and Demetria 12).

2. Maintaining a diversity-friendly workplace in the wake of harsh criticism due to past racism by creating focus groups (Swanson 257).

a. Establish a diversity council in the workplace where people from different races could be put into the same group category and could share ideas (Swanson 258-260).

b. Performance evaluation is a focus point for diversity management program thus the evaluation between both majority and minority personnel should be rated fairly (Swanson 265-266).

B. A number of issues highlight the importance of Intercultural communication training.

1. Intercultural communication training is an act of communication when the message sender is from another culture and the receiver is from another culture (Horan 26).

a. A successful intercultural communication is the establishment and sharing of common meanings between the sender and receiver (Horan 26).

b. One barrier of intercultural communication is by making a culture’s point of view as a standard to judge other cultures (Horan 27).

2. Building a training program that would meet the needs and attitudes of the participants.

a. A training program that approaches participants through activities rather than lecture based (Horan 29).

b. Establishing community groups that contains participants and trainers from different races where they would have an open communication discussing common issues like cultural differences/similarities, difficulties of communicating, cultural values and conflict resolutions (Horan 30).

V. Conclusion

The importance of intercultural communication and cultural diversity in a workplace should not be overlooked because it would reflect on the success or failure rate of a company. Companies could resolve miscommunication and misconceptions by raising diversity workplace management and establishing intercultural communication training in a workplace.

Works Cited

Akhtar, Faiza, Suleman A. Lodhi, and Safdar S. Khan. "Assessing the Influence of the Cultural Perspective on Cross Cultural Conflict: An Analysis of Cultural Environment." Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences, vol. 10, no. 1, 2016., pp. 84-103. ProQuest, https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1833035655?accountid=28371.

Balta, Hugo. "Diversity At Its Finest." Public Relations Tactics, vol.22, no.7, July. 2015, pp. 9. EBSCOhost, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=9e5593c4-a9af-4f2c-85d9-ff181c2bb0ae%40sessionmgr102&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=108922783&db=bsh

Buckingham, Edwards and Cheryl Demetria. “A Case Study Exploring the Impact of Managing Workplace Diversity on Diversity Awareness and Employee Job Satisfaction”, Capella University, Ann Arbor, 2010. ProQuest, https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/205415699?accountid=28371.

Hewlett, Sylvia, Melinda Marshall and Laura Shebin. “How Diversity Can Drive Innovation.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Publishing, December 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation. Accessed 17 Nov. 2016

Horan, Margaret Anne. "Cross/Trans/Intercultural Communications Training: What It Is - What It Is Not." Training & Development Journal, vol. 30, no. 11, p. 26, November 1976, pp.26-31. EBSCOhost, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=40494d5b-b7c9-4be6-8787- 1449e8a46f52%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=7446839&db=tfh.

Kotcher, Raymond L. "Diversity In Today's Workplace And Marketplace." Public Relations Quarterly, vol.40, no.1, Spring. 1995, pp. 6-8. EBSCOhost, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=9e5593c4-a9af-4f2c-85d9-ff181c2bb0ae%40sessionmgr102&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=9505311078&db=bsh .

Rodriguez, Cristina M. "Language Diversity In The Workplace." Northwestern University Law Review, vol.100, no.4, Summer. 2006, pp. 1689-1773. EBSCOhost, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=9e5593c4-a9af-4f2c-85d9-ff181c2bb0ae%40sessionmgr102&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=23317092&db=aph .

Swanson, Don R. "Diversity Programs: Attitude and Realities in the Contemporary Corporate Environment." Corporate Communications, vol. 7, no. 4, 2002, pp. 257-268. ProQuest, https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/214190553?accountid=28371.

Ward-Johnson, Frances. "Why Hiring And Retaining Diverse Employees Is Key Today." Public Relations Tactics, vol.14, no.7, July. 2007, pp. 15-17. EBSCOhost, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=173a595f-8fed-4f99-8eeb-b3c6780cc231%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=25775871&db=bsh

Introduction

In today’s modern and multicultural society, we are surrounded by people with different skin color, size, height, racial and ethnic background, traditions, and even speak different language than we do. It has begun to feel like every one of us is either mixed-blood or immigrants. As we see all of the diverse community as we walk down the streets, it is no different in the workplace across this nation. Although we can see the diversity of people working in a company (e.g. Blacks, Caucasians, Asians), the importance of cultural diversity how it could also be beneficial to companies is often neglected. A survey that was conducted showed that PR industries are still operating largely on a traditional model of the American workplace (Kotcher). In this model, companies would expect employees, especially multicultural employees, to follow and adapt to the American workplace and not have their own input or anything to do with their cultural background knowledge. Kotcher also mentioned that if the public relations industries continue operating with this mindset, they would miss the most significant opportunity they have seen in years. According to Williams (14), companies should no longer ignore the importance of cultural diversity in a workplace because the landscape of our society is changing. For the well-being of a company’s success, employers should adapt to this ever-changing society and raise the importance of cultural diversity by managing diversity in a workplace and building an intercultural communication program which would benefit both employees and companies. It is important to raise awareness and emphasize the importance of cultural diversity in public relations industries and the workplace in order to open employers’ minds to multicultural employees, which would have a great impact on a company’s success.