The Importance Of Management Of Cultural Diversity In Companies

The importance of management of cultural diversity in companies

Introduction

While it is true, in recent years the organizational scene has faced the need to make relevant changes according to business, social, cultural and economic needs worldwide, in order to maintain its positioning, its continuous development,economic sustainability and the most important thing to generate a good work environment and quality of life to its employees.

It should be noted that these changes that have been presented in the environment of organizations, cover technological advances, entrepreneurship, the generation of innovative projects, empowerment between employees and cultural diversity, the latter, has become a factorImportant and influential for companies, since the world economic and social scene has been shaped according to globalization, where the world has integrated into each other and has allowed a considerable flow of foreign investment and in turn the projection of multinational companies thatThey decide to use different hands of any part of the world, thanks to their knowledge and experiences that are required to carry out strategic processes and activities for the continuous development of the company.

Developing

Now, you have to understand what cultural diversity is? Well, according to UNESCO, “it is the set of spiritual, material, intellectual and affective distinctive features of a society or social group, which includes, in addition to arts and letters, lifestyle, forms of coexistence, value systems, traditions and beliefs ".

(UNESCO, 2001), at the first instance we must emphasize the importance of intellectual knowledge that a set of cultures and value systems provides, since through them a dynamic mechanism of ideas and strategic projects is generated that in a wayYou can benefit the company. However, despite the definition of cultural diversity, by UNESCO, this issue has not been easy to define and has become a central theme for organizations.

Therefore, currently, UNESCO plays an important role in encouraging the importance of culture diversity, through the following statement:

1. Cultural diversity constitutes a common heritage of humanity, so it must be recognized and consolidated for present and future generations.
2. Cultural diversity goes hand in hand with cultural pluralism.
3. Cultural diversity is an important tool for economic development and growth.
4. Cultural diversity keeps a close relationship with human rights.
5. The development of creative diversity demands full realization of cultural rights.
6. Access for all to cultural diversity.

It should be clarified that very much that great progress has been made regarding cultural inclusion in organizations, it must be taken into account that this has been a rugged issue, since, if we go back throughout history,The organizations were closed systems that did not take into account the development of the work environment and how this influenced the performance of employees, the boom of globalization and everything that has allowed, such as intercultural skills, was also not very familiar, to use foreign works. Now, for anyone is a secret, that in most cases when different cultures are joined or related, cultural shocks can be generated due to the differences between beliefs, traditions, values and even the way of seeing thelife and solving problems. Therefore, from the organizational point of view, companies must work hard in appropriate strategies for the management of business cultural diversity.

Following, cultural diversity has become a challenge for organizations, due to its complex nature that causes companies to make the difficulty of policy decision making for the entire organization, as well as generates discriminatory paradigms by employees thatThey could affect the company’s stability in one way or another. For this reason, at present, Higher Education has entered as a key piece in the transformation of those pedagogical models that focus on the importance of creating guidelines that encourage students the necessary skills to work in multicultural environments and be part of diversitycultural.

For this, it has been developed from 1998 to the present, projects such as DESCO and Tuning that will be responsible for emphasizing the “cultural diversity” competition as a key factor that contributes to the development of the quality of life through success andOrganization of society. For this, the Tuning project focuses on the structures of the studies and the result of learning, and the DESCO project focuses on setting competences for life, on a well -educated citizenship, through the interactive use of different tools,such as knowledge, proper use of technology, and even language, also through social interaction in heterogeneous groups that are able to work as a team and efficiently solve conflicts and also understand the importance of developing in thosediverse and multicultural societies.

To these, the implementation of the Erasmus program is added, which focuses on working on cooperation between institutions and cooperation with companies, which allows a coherent analysis of the behavior of labor market demand and supplyOf universities, it should also be noted that this program promotes these cooperations to achieve the development of innovative ideas as well as the exchange of good practices, through:

1. Transnational strategic associations, which promote innovation, exchange of experiences, and knowledge among organizations involved in youth education and training.
2. The alliances for knowledge, here the exchanges of teachings between universities and companies are encouraged.
3. alliances for sector competencies, among others.

On the other hand, it is worth highlighting the implementation of the 2020 horizon strategy that focuses on working on the development of those objectives that allow social, cultural and political integration in order to achieve growth in the economy that has a high levelof employment and innovative characteristics. All these projects and strategies that have been developed in the higher academic field in Europe have aimed to encourage students to participate in global changes, to mobilize other countries, in order to learn and strengthen their knowledge, nowThis example has, it is worth asking how higher education in Colombia is working on the development of an education that promotes the importance of cultural diversity in organizations? Well, currently Colombia has become an attractive point for foreign investment as for multinational companies, this has led to universities to work on the implementation and development of academic programs with notions of generating comprehensive professionals focused on participating in a wayActive in a globalized market that is characterized by demanding employees with a high level of intercultural competition and that are able to work in teams with members from different countries or different cultural, since, although it is true, Colombia, it stands out becauselength of its territory, there is a great cultural and ethnic diversity.

On the other hand, from a business context, cultural diversity has become a key factor for innovation in organizations, since through it more competitive labor efficiency is generated, which allows greater productivity and endless contributions fromdifferent perspectives, which contribute to the realization of strategic projects that point to the development of the competitive advantages of companies in the global market.

However, although cultural diversity becomes a plus of efficiency and competence for companies, it also causes the emergence of conflicts that can hinder the work environment and in turn the performance of the organization. Therefore, it is necessary that companies know how to manage strategies that focus on mitigating these problems. For example, among these forms are the establishment of fees, see cultural difference as a prestige for the company and use cultural diversity as a key resource for learning in the organization, this in order to also encourage the benefits they causeCultural diversity, such as:

1. The consolidation of the culture of the organization.
2. The improvement of the company’s image globally.
3. Strengthening innovation and creativity.
4. The increase in productivity.
5. High job performance.
6. Fidelization of customers worldwide.
7. Economic development in organizations.
8. Greater competitive advantage.

Taking into account the above, it is important to ask why is it necessary for companies to understand the management of cultural diversity from the notion of coexistence of its members or employees?, Well, very much that organizations have been working on the implementation of management projects that encourage good practices that lead to cultural diversity, they have left in the background the recognition of the importance of diversity for the coexistence of theiremployees, so it ends up falling into the error of conflicts generated by intolerance due to cultural differences between people. This is why it is necessary for organizations, to make guidelines that articulate organizational culture with aspects of coexistence.

For this reason, companies need to generate value and invest in those resources that allow us to work on the use of all those opportunities offeredcultural as the main basis of the development of multicultural and intercultural models. But, however, it should be clarified that cultural pluralism stands out for maintaininteraction between different ethnicities or people from different countries.

conclusion

Already to end, it is worth highlighting the importance of universities as key tools to educate from an integral and global perspective to future professionals, in order to achieve a good job development in those companies that point to their positioning in the global market,where cultural diversity becomes a reality that entails great changes in the structural and development system of organizations, since through this one establishes greater productivity and creation of innovative development plans that go hand in hand with the needspresent at the scene of a dynamic globalization that is changing day by day.

For this, universities work in the process of academic exchanges plans to motivate students to mobilize different countries and thus learn new cultures, and strengthen their intercultural skills, also work on the development of training in intercultural skills for teachers for teachersand universities workers, since they play an important role in the articulation between the training of students and their participation in companies.

References

• UNESCO. (2001). Cultural diversity: is its application possible in the audiovisual sector? . obtained from https: // www.Ohchr.Org/sp/Professionalinterest/Pages/CulturalDive.ASPX
• Chinchilla, Nuria & Jiménez Esther (S.F) “Report: Diversity management in the company. Case of success and public dissemination of good practices ". Obtained from https: // www.Redacoge.org/mm/file/manage%c3%93n%20de%20la%20Diversity_boletines/report_gestion-of-diversity-in-the-company_adecco.PDF
• Escrich, Teresa & Lozano Félix (S.F.) "Cultural diversity management in companies: the challenge of higher education". Obtained from http: // www.ingenuity.UPV.is/in/system/files/contributions_congress/communication_murcia.PDF