Cultural Diversity Concepts the Dimensions of Cultural

Cultural Diversity Concepts

The Dimensions of Cultural Diversity

The concept of cultural diversity includes ethnicity, racial identity, country of origin, sexual preference, gender identity, and socioeconomic class. In principle, each of those aspects of individual identity can affect the manner in which people perceive and respond to one another in any environment where they encounter one another. To a great degree, there is a natural inclination for people from one culture (in any of those dimensions) to treat other people differently. That is particularly true in circumstances where individuals from a dominant majority culture encounter individuals from minority cultures. In the worst cases, cultural diversity results in prejudice and mistreatment or subjugation such as was widely the case in the United States between the dominant Caucasian and minority "Negro" community until the social reforms of the civil rights era of the 1960s. Today, American society recognizes the equal rights of all members of the community and protects many specific diverse cultural groups against discrimination because of their cultural status.

Diversity vs. Inclusion

In principle, diversity is the recognition of may different cultures in society and the acknowledgment of the equal status and legal rights of all cultures. Meanwhile, it is entirely possible to recognize diversity without any meaningful attempt at inclusion in the community. In this context, inclusion means the actual attempt to reduce and overcome any barriers that separate members of the community based on cultural difference. For example, it is perfectly possible for two different cultural communities to co-exist peacefully side by side (and for coworkers of different cultural backgrounds to work side by side) but without any meaningful social interaction between the two groups. This is diversity without inclusion. In the workplace (especially) inclusion means that individuals from different cultural backgrounds overcome any natural (or learned) tendencies to exclude one another and actually treat one another the same as they might but for the differences in culture. Another way of characterizing it might be that diversity corresponds merely to accepting others whereas inclusion corresponds to embracing them.

The Importance of Workplace Diversity Training

Precisely because many people may come into the workplace environment harboring various negative attitudes about or expectations of members of other cultures, diversity training is crucial in the workplace in multicultural societies. Even if overt prejudice, antagonism, or discrimination are no longer prevalent in society, the only reliable path to genuine cultural diversity that manifests inclusion is to provide training to assist employees overcome any existing barriers in that regard.

Personal Experience and Retrospective Analysis with Cultural Diversity Issues