The Employee Training final paper
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The Employee Training Final Paper
Cultural dexterity is currently very vital in the globally interconnected work environment. With the growing globalization and global accessibility, the workforce needs to be more aware of oneself and others to handle the cultural diversity that has ensued (Cultural Awareness International, 2022). The workplace is increasingly becoming more multicultural, and the binary notion of home and host country rendered obsolete. The heterogeneity currently experienced in the work environment and the labor force culture requires new knowledge to handle. The knowledge can be gained by embracing dynamic and adaptive training of the current workforce on working in a multicultural environment and respecting cultural diversity (Cultural Awareness International, 2022). Creating such as course is a complex process with many considerations. This study will discuss some of the various aspects of developing a cultural diversity course, including relevant ethics and laws, impacts of demographic diversities, training modalities, and whether the course should be standardized or not.
Laws and Regulations to be Considered
Legal and ethical considerations are indispensable in creating a training course, especially concerning cultural diversity. Many laws and ethical considerations have been put forward to guide how people relate with one another in various settings, such as workplaces and schools, how they undertake their roles, including teaching, and how to ensure credibility and give back to the community satisfactorily (US Department of Labor, 2022). Many organizations that plan to design any training course must ensure compliance with these provisions to avoid litigation issues.
Just like any other course or program, the creation of a new cultural diversity course will require accreditation by an authorized body to ensure credibility. According to the Education Law §210, no degree program may be offered unless and until it is registered (NYS Education Department, 2019). The State Education Department is the body mandated to register a program but delegates this duty to private organizations such as the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) and Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The company will have to follow the accreditation standards of both NECHE and LCME to register for the course (Mendez, 2019).
The organization will also consider the laws provided by the department of labor, such as the Fair Labor Standard Act, to decide on fair pay for the prospective educators (NYS Education Department, 2019). Creating the cultural diversity course require compensating the tutors as guided by the law. Similarly, the teachers to be employed must be accredited and licensed by the state or country of operation. All states require that people be licensed before they can teach in an official capacity or in a public school (All Education Schools, 2022).
Ethical considerations demand fairness and non-discriminatory recruitment and treatment of trainers and trainees. The anti-discriminatory acts enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), such as Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Civil Rights Act Title VII, and others, prohibit discrimination of any kind (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2022). So long as one is qualified for the job, they should be employed irrespective of age, race, gender, and so on. Similarly, trainees should not be discriminated against by exposing them to similar and fair treatment.
Impact of Demographic Diversity on Cultural Diversity
The current workforce is rapidly becoming diverse, with people finding out that they vary in more and more ways. Diversity defines the manner in which people are similar or different from one another (Harrison & Carroll, 2021). Demographic diversity and cultural diversity are the two categories of diversity that have been identified. Demographic diversity is seen in terms of relatively stable and visible characteristics, including gender, age, race, religion, sexual orientation, education, tenure, and physical abilities (Harrison & Carroll, 2021). Cultural diversity defines the differences people gain from social norms, including language, behaviors, values, beliefs, norms, and material objects passed down from one generation to the next (Boas, 2022). Demographic and cultural diversity influence the current work environment in one way or the other because they shape people’s behaviors and perceptions of their surroundings, particularly discussions in a workforce.
Age is one of the demographic diversities that affect cultural diversity discussion because it shapes how people understand cultures. Age has led to generational differences, including traditionalists, baby boomers, generation Z, and millennials with varied beliefs and values (Watts, 2019). For instance, baby boomers want respect from younger workers, while millennials believe in equality. Older generations tend to view diversity in terms of race, equality, demographics, and representation, while Millennials see it in terms of different backgrounds, varying experiences, and individual perspectives (Watts, 2019).
Gender also influences culture since it is a constituent of culture that determines how people are expected to act, dress, speak, groom, and conduct themselves based upon their assigned sex. During discussions, the workforce can explore these topics that influence their daily lives to understand what culture expects (Harrison & Carroll, 2021). Race and ethnicity impact people’s attitudes and perceptions of things. This is because people of different races and ethnicities mostly come from different families, societies, and locations (Boas, 2022). While others may see all races as equal, others may have prejudice and stereotypes, and provoke discussion on cultural differences shaped by race and ethnicity. These variations, including education, tenure, and physical disabilities provoke discussion on cultural diversities and determine the different sides that colleagues take during these discussions.
Ethical Implications to be Considered
In creating the new course of cultural diversity, the developer will have to consider many ethical implications. Investigations must consider that culture is broad and goes beyond ethnicity and race. The course will consider various cultures and findings that can be subject to inaccuracy and bias (Hrenyk et al., 2016). One will have to give non-bias justification to consider some cultures to be used for references while leaving out others. Terms such as barbaric cultures, rudimentary beliefs, inhumane practices, and other pejorative descriptions must be avoided while referring to other’s cultures or, if one feels they are appropriate, should be borne out of universal consensus. The intolerance of cultural norms and values is considered unethical in multiculturalism. Hrenyk et al. (2016) report that “a main challenge of multiculturalism is the relativistic nature of human beings and the high degree of tolerance that must be maintained.”
Belkin (2021) recommends considering power as an ethical issue to ensure that people are not discriminated against in any way. In particular, poor people, youth, gays and lesbians, among other members of marginalized groups in western society are discriminated against because they lack power. The program must ensure equal treatment. The designer will have to ensure that negative implications that may arise from the program are avoided at all costs (Belkin, 2021). The course developers are bounded by ethics to only adhere to universal ethics in the process while attempting to respect the particular and contextual ethical norms of a given social or ethnic group simultaneously.
Confidentiality is also another ethical value that must be considered. After conducting a need assessment and obtaining informative information, the organization must decide which data to share and with who to share it (Hrenyk et al., 2016). Similarly, it must decide about which data to keep and who to keep and access it. Personal and sensitive information should not be shared or stored if not necessary, particularly by unauthorized people. Moreover, ethics demand that decisions should not be unfair to one group of stakeholders and favor another. Such decisions should at least benefit the majority of all categories of stakeholders, if not all (Belkin, 2021). Training materials such as books, computers, videos, websites, manuals, and so on should not violate copyright and patent requirements (Hrenyk et al., 2016).
Training Standardization
Culture is both universal and variable across the globe. Kline, Shamsudheen, and Broesch (2018) report that culture is a human universal, yet it is a source of variation in human psychology, behavior, and development. Consequently, to have an in-depth view of cultures across the globe, one must contextualize their approaches to various localities. Besides, culture varies widely even within a small geographical area. For instance, in New Mexico, there are more than 16 categories of native American tribes (New Mexico Secretary of State, 2022). As such, creating a standardized cultural diversity course across the globe may have more negative consequences for the learners than positive ones.
A standard curriculum may be harmful because it is likely to fail to achieve the primary goal of a curriculum of helping students achieve a meaningful outcome. A standard syllabus will impose a single but correct way (generally based on content-transfer pedagogy) of achieving the expected outcome without considering other effective alternatives. One might have to learn about a foreign culture without first understanding their own culture and the diversity within to understand and appreciate variations across the globe (Bjerede, 2013). Such a singular view of culture might doom students to failure.
A standard training might also not be feasible considering the various cultures and ethnicities the developer will have to consider (Nguyen et al., 2016). For instance, in Asia, the program cannot be accurate if it uses a general term such as an Asian culture or takes one country to represent others. The program will have to consider Chinese, Indian, Iraqi, Qatari, and Philippines cultures, and how they vary within themselves. In Africa, each country can have more than 20 district tribes with unique cultures. Capturing all these cultures in a one-size-fits-all curriculum is impossible, without risking being shallow and compromising deep understanding (Bjerede, 2013). Localizing these cultures is therefore very important to incorporate and satisfy the cultural differences, economic environmental factors, heterogeneity within different countries, and the company’s desire to satisfy trainees’ diverse needs in the global space. Additionally, localization will enable trainees to learn about and understand the cultural diversity they see around them before going international (Nguyen et al., 2016). Therefore, the course should not be standardized despite being possible.
Method or Modality of Training
The best learning method to be adopted in this scenario is blended learning. According to Cultural Awareness International (2022), blended learning is a training modality that combines instructor-led training with Virtual and/or Online Training to create a thoughtful combination of action learning assignments, pre-work, reinforcement opportunities, and coaching. This is an effective method for preparing an inclusive and diverse global workforce. As the course will be going global, the heightened globalization and global mobility will force educators and course providers to adopt any necessary flexibility to respond accordingly to the situation on the ground. For instance, a teacher may not have the opportunity for a face-to-face lesson with learners from other countries but can use other virtual or digital means, such as Zoom, Emails, Google Meet, WhatsApp, and so on to ensure that trainees attend lessons and access any relevant learning material. According to Cultural Awareness International (2022), a blended learning approach helps improve skills, develop sustainable talent, boost performances, and offer flexibility to Global Mobility training.
Blended learning enables remote learning and attendance of classes. If the company opens branches across the globe, a teacher can simultaneously teach students from more than one branch via virtual learning. However, some lessons may need a physical class, such as visiting a museum to learn more about a culture (Cultural Awareness International, 2022). In such cases, teachers on the ground will organize to visit the site and can even record the lesion to share with students from other countries to learn. This approach allows supplementing physical learning with e-learning to eliminate the boredom and monotony caused by either. Preparing a cohort of talented individuals to provide face-to-face training across cultures enables contextualization and localization of the coursed, which is congruent since this course discourages standardization (Cultural Awareness International, 2022).
Recommendations
In this case, the company is a global organization with a training and development department in which I work. The assumption is that the company already has global branches and has already been implementing various training programs. Therefore, the cultural diversity course will just be incorporated into an existing program. The company will first contact and contract course developers from all global branches to develop the most suitable syllabus for a specific group of employees. A standard manual can be developed to guide cause developers on how they will arrange the course. For instance, the introduction can be universal to handle the general understanding of cultural diversity. Next, the local developer will delve into the local culture that is most accessible to them. As they move to international cultural diversity, the branches can share learning material depending on the preferences and objectives of the company, trainers’ convenience, and the trainees’ choices.
Secondly, the company will go ahead to employ trainers to implement the course. Each branch should have at least three local-based trainers specializing in an aspect of cultural diversity for better convenience and coverage. The various branches will advertise the positions with the recommended qualifications and allow interested candidates to apply. They will then conduct interviews and recruitments before moving into the logistics of mobilizing trainees and scheduling the actual training.
Globalization and increased global mobility have led to increased cultural interaction and culture mix-up across the globe. As a result, cultural competency among workers is essential to enhance cultural sensitivity and tolerance. Global organizations must incorporate training on cultural diversity and competence in their activities to ensure that employees have the necessary skills to manage cultural differences. Organizing training of any kind is a complex process that requires enough preparation and consideration to ensure success. This discussion has demonstrated the considerations and processes a company should consider while creating a course on cultural diversity. Recommendations such as localization of the course and application of a blended learning approach are vital for the successful implementation of the course because they offer flexibility, contextualization, and improvisation whenever necessary. Companies must understand their unique situations and embrace what works for them to develop a cultural diversity course.
References
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