The Multicultural Workplace Essay -- Occupational Issues

The modern American workplace has become paganly diverse as different immigrant communities increased in size. According to the US Department of Immigration, 148,426 immigrants received their residency in 2011 in New York. Because of the increased workplace diversity, businesses have to deal with a variety of cultural awareness and multiple language issues. These are very pressing issues in New York City, the melting pot of cultures from all over the world. Each workplace in New York City has at least one employee of a non-American background or a bilingual employee. While exploring the multinational workplace, which consisted of immigrants from a variety of countries, I was able to distinguish three distinctive themes. The first is immigrants self-consciousness of having an accent. The second is mixing two languages in speech. The third is the problem of building an effective multicultural team.Full-time employed adults spend at least 40% of their time at work and for many adults i t accounts for 100% of their public life. Workplace has become a place of complaisant interaction. Vicky Schultz described the importance of the workplace to individuals growth in her work The Sanitized Workplace as the followingFor virtually people, working isnt just a way to earn a livelihood. Its a way to make friends and form communities and to know themselves and others in a deep way. Workplace is also a source of citizenship, community, and self-understanding.From this perspective, for immigrants learning the language of the host country is a tool to develop a net of useful social contacts. Cristina Rodriguez states that in addition to its role in developing social bonds, the language use assists with preserving a multilingual en... ...ogy.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/LevAriKeysar.pdf6.Rodriguez, Cristina. Language Diversity in the Workplace. www.law.northwestern.edu. Northwestern University School of Law, 2006. Web. 6 May 2012. http//www.law.northwestern.edu/lawreview/v1 00/n4/1689/lr100n4rodriguez.pdf7.Shultz, Vicky. The Sanitized Workplace. Yale L.J., 2003. 2069-70. Print.8.Estlund, Cynthia. Working Together How Workplace Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy. New York, NY Oxford University Press, 2005. 256. Print.9.Keogh, Jack. International Teams Beyond cultural Difference. www.jackkeogh.com. Keogh and Associate Consulting, LLC, n.d. Web. 6 May 2012. http//www.jackkeogh.com/Multicultural team article by JK.pdf10.Masculinity. www.clearlycultural.com. ClearlyCultural.com, 2009. Web. 6 May 2012. http//www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/masculinity/