Cultural, Ethnic and Gender Differences Essay

Because these issues have become more pronounced in recent years, it is not surprising that efforts have been made to define these differences in an effort to measure them. In this regard, Hofstede (1980) identified five basic dimensions of culture as follows:

1. Power distance (focusing on the extent to which the less powerful expect and accept that power is distributed unequally);

2. Individualism-collectivism (focusing on the degree to which the society reinforces individual or collective achievement and interpersonal relationships -- highly individualist cultures believe individual is the most important unit, whereas highly collectivistic cultures believe group is the most important unit);

3. Uncertainly avoidance (focusing on the degree to which the society reinforces, or does not reinforce, uncertainty and ambiguity within the society)

4. Masculinity-femininity (focusing on the extent to which a society emphasizes achievement or nurturing -- masculinity emphasizes ambition, acquisition of wealth, and differentiated gender roles, whereas femininity stresses caring and nurturing behaviors, sexual equality, environmental awareness, and more fluid gender roles); and,

5. Confucian-dynamism (focusing on the selective promotion of a particular set of ethics found in Confucian teachings including thrift, perseverance, a sense of shame, and following a hierarchy) (cited in Nicholson, Sarker, Sarker & Valacich, 2007).

These cultural dimensions provide a general framework in which ethnic, cultural and gender-related differences can manifest in the workplace, but there is a consensus that there is no "one-size-fits-all" management approach that is equally effective in all situations (Nicholson et al., 2007).Conclusion

By any measure, taking all of the potential ethnic-, cultural- and gender-related differences into account in formulating an effective management approach is a daunting enterprise, but some managers seem to have an intuitive "knack" for recognizing such differences while others struggle to apply what they know to different situations. In multinational organizations, these issues can become powerful obstacles to performance and growth, making the need for sensitivity training in these areas an important component of an informed human resources management program.

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Nicholson, D.B., Sarker, S., Sarker, S. & Valacich, J.S. (2007).….....