The Multicultural Workplace Essay -- Occupational Issues

The modern American workplace has become culturally 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 â€Å"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 it accounts for 100% of their â€Å"public† life. Workplace has become a place of social interaction. Vicky Schultz described the importance of the workplace to individual’s growth in her work The Sanitized Workplace as the following: For most people, working isn’t just a way to earn a livelihood. It’s 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.pdf 6. 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/v100/n4/1689/lr100n4rodriguez.pdf 7. 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.pdf 10. "Masculinity." www.clearlycultural.com. ClearlyCultural.com, 2009. Web. 6 May 2012. http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/masculinity/