A Multicultural Workforce: Advantages and Challenges

Smart business leaders know the importance of understanding cultural differences.
In today’s increasingly complex business environment understanding your multicultural work force helps you gain and sustain a competitive edge.
And can greatly improve your organization’s productivity and bottom-line results.

Multicultural workforce or cultural diversity in the workplace – whatever name you use – it’s a reality in today’s business world. To get the best results for you and your organization it’s important to understand and effectively interact with people from diverse backgrounds.

What do I know about diversity in the workplace?
Well, that was a twenty-year-long learning process : )
The best way to learn about other cultures (for me) was to live in a border or in a port town.
San Diego is both. That’s where I learned about diversity. For those of you not familiar with the city:

• San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States.
• With a diverse and multilingual population (by some accounts its residents speak close to100 languages).
• San Diego’s economy is led by manufacturing, tourism, military and defense industry.
• The city has one of the busiest border crossings in the world. More than $30 billion goods are going through customs every year.

San Diego was my home for twenty years.

Understand our differences
Celebrate how much alike we are

I could tell you about PD, MAS, IDV, and more of the same.
But I won’t.
Throughout this month I will share with you first-hand experiences and observations.

I work with clients who have business operations on both sides of the border. At the top of their agenda is learning about how each side operates best and gets the optimum results. Simply put, they want to maximize the benefits and minimize the challenges.

In today’s global economy that’s an important part of managing any business.
We’ll also discuss inclusion, which I think is one of the most effective tools to use in managing a diverse workforce.

“We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity ; an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.” Hubert Humphrey.

Sharing this blog with your friends is much appreciated.

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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