The Concepts of Culture, Minority Groups, Stereotypes and Essay

The Concepts of Culture, Minority Groups, Stereotypes and Discrimination - Essay Example Rapid changes characterize the modern world. With these changes taking place, the business world has been one area where these changes have necessitated new approaches to management. In this case, the business world has witnessed workers from differing backgrounds in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and philosophical beliefs come together in the workplace. In some cases, managers are not aware of the inherent differences among their employees. On the other hand, some managers are aware of these differences and try to make use of these differences to the benefit of the organization. This approach is managing diversity in an organization, and it is important for management to find the best approaches to deal with the issues of culture, minority groups, stereotypes, and discrimination in the workplace in order to make sure that the organization benefited from all workers. In this case, an organization should find the best approaches to integrate these concepts in the workplace in order to manage diversity in the workplace. The United Nations High Commission on Human Rights defined cultures as constituting â€Å"differences in academic qualifications, religion, and expressive features of a social group’s traditions and beliefs†. In line with this, it is evident that the contemporary society’s workplace is representative of these people who demonstrate these differences. In an organizational perspective, these different groups enhance the organization’s objectives with their own flavor of cultural background, lifestyle, vision, and fulfillment of challenges†. In effect, it is crucial for an organization to ensure that employees enhanced the organization’s objectives while following a similar approach in order to ensure that the organizational goals were achieved using a common approach. Minority groups are the groups that traditionally lack power in an organization, which include women and members of other ethnic and racial groups that were not dominant in an organization. In line with this, it is crucial to point out that these groups face challenges when integrating themselves in the workplace, which affects their productivity due to the factors that prevent their participation in an organization. Hence, managers should define approaches that ensured their integration in a manner that was efficient and effective. On the other hand, these groups might face challenges to participate in the workplace due to the different stereotypes. In effect, the stereotypes contribute to discrimination in the workplace. In line with this, cultural stereotypes also affect the integration of people from disparate cultures in the workplace. Fiske and Lee identified stereotypes as the â€Å"categorical associations-including traits, behaviors and roles-perceivers make to group members based on their membership†. In effect, these perceptions affect the interaction of workers in the workplace, whi ch effectively affects productivity and profitability in an organization. Hence, effective approaches to managing diversity are essential in ensuring that workers did not allow their perceptions about other workers influence their interaction in the workplace. For example, today’s workplace witnesses more women, who have long been considered a minority group, taking leadership roles in various organizations. In effect, men identified women with stereotypes related to women being sex objects, which limits the ascendancy of women to positions of leadership in organizations and their interaction as equal workers in the same organizations with men. On the other hand, discrimination refers to â€Å"perceiver advantages that advantage one group over another† in the workplace.