Cultural Diversity and Motivation Explain how cultural diversity influences motivation in learning and training, and what you might do to increase the motivation of individuals in a culturally diverse workplace.

While cultural diversity can positively influence a workplace by facilitating respect for other cultures and helping people to develop their awareness of the differences between various peoples all over the planet, it can also present an obstacle for some, if prejudice and bias are present beneath the surface. Sometimes the obstacles do not even have to be that sinister—they can simply stem from misunderstandings and miscommunication between people of different cultural backgrounds. As the Hofstede model of cultural inputs shows, people from different socio-cultural backgrounds will have different approaches to making affirmations, communicating, how gender roles should be filled, and so on (Hofstede, 1980). So in a workplace environment where there is a great deal of cultural diversity, there is bound to be some confusion in terms of communication norms, role expectations, etc. There may also be some mistrust among workers of different ethnic backgrounds, based on historical animosity—particularly in the U.S., as Holder, Jackson & Ponterotto (2015) have...

If one ethnic group holds power over another, there may be a great deal of mistrust.
In order to increase the motivation of individuals in a culturally diverse workplace, it is necessary to promote a workplace culture that can bring the diverse groups together into a harmonious whole. The more fractured and fragmented a workplace is, the harder it is for workers to align. As Riccucci (2018) points out, it is perfectly okay for companies to change their workplace culture in order to accommodate the various needs of a diverse workplace. The cultural change should find ways to bring different people to a common ground, and it should also promote respect, tolerance and appreciation for the different peoples while making a conscious effort to put old grudges, stereotypes and biases aside. This kind of workplace culture can help to motivate workers in a cultural diverse setting, as the principles that emanate from it and the vision that is passed on through it can sustain workers and give them the right kind of support needed for achieving organizational aims.

Cultural intelligence would also be a skill that managers and employees would be tasked with developing in order to be properly motivated in a culturally diverse workplace. Cultural intelligence is like social…