The concepts of cultural awareness, cultural safety and cultural competence are important in the context of a diverse workplace. Explain what these concepts are and how they impact on the different work roles across the community services sector.

        Cultural awareness is the base for communication. It deals with the employees’ awareness about the cultural principles, norms and perceptions of the organization. It provides the employees with the standards to follow for the work-flow. Cultural safety is about the provision of safe surroundings to the employees. These may be either in the form of emotions or spirits. Also, physical safety is an integral part of cultural safety. It makes the employees distinguished based on their characteristics. Cultural competence is about the understanding that is developed with the employees either the employees of lower level, the peers or the senior authorities. In a diverse workplace, cultural competence deals with the ability of the workers to interact effectively with the other employees. It makes the employees develop and maintain positive attitude towards the culture of the organization. Cultural competence better helps to get an understanding of the varying needs and the norms of the people who belong to different cultures.

            In the community service sector, the training programs are arranged with an aim that better highlight the employees’ view point related to the issues about the social, cultural and historical values. These awareness programs help to make the employees more aware of their cultural beliefs and values. Based on this training, the employees can make comparisons with other culture’s norms and values. For the provision of any product or the service, cultural security is considered as important as the product or the service itself. The employees who are provided with cultural security, they feel more satisfied from their jobs. They try to make communication with the other employees through proper communication means. The employees having a sense for increased physical safety tend to increase the chances for the organization to make more profits. In a diverse working environment, the impact of cultural competence includes the provision of the properly defined means of communication. Through these communication means, the cultural differences are better minimized among the employees of an organization. The better the communication, the more will be the employees’ performance.

Question 2: Explain diversity and what respect for diversity in the workplace means

       Workplace diversity means to bring the people from different cultures (maybe across the world) to a single platform. The parameters for the workforce diversity may include race, gender, religion, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation as well as the employees’ ability to excel.

To work in an organization, while working with people from different cultures, is a big challenge. In this regard, respect is an important aspect. Every employee at work has his/her own beliefs, values and life experiences. To gain more competitive advantage, an organization is required to respect for the view-point of every employee of the company.

Question 3: Community attitudes and structures of culture, language and workplace policies influence people and groups and will all have an impact on community services work. Briefly explain the impact of each of these things. If necessary conduct independent research.

       The factors that have a significant impact on the community services work may include the community attitudes, cultural structure, language as well as the workplace policies. These factors not only affect the individuals but also the group’s performance is affected by these parameters. The impact of these parameters may include the areas where not only the way of working of a person is influenced but also the challenges & their relevant solutions, creation of the relationship among the employees along with the consideration of cultural and language differences are affected.

The community attitudes and the structure of the culture will affect the employees on an individual basis. This may include employees’ perceptions, viewpoints, beliefs as well as the values. Any change to the existing circumstances and the employees’ behaviour towards this change is also a part of the community attitudes and the structure of the culture. The structure of a culture can make a change to employees’ norms, values, behaviour, beliefs and perceptions. The viewpoint of a work-related to an issue can also be influenced through the words, language, gestures as well as the phrases that are used in a work environment. The cross-cultural association can better be created by the use of well-defined and appropriate jargons. This will also help to avoid stereotyping. The work-place policies greatly influence the way an employee work. The organizational strategies to achieve its goals and long term objectives are also influenced due to the work-place policies. This makes the employees work with more satisfaction in a culturally diverse environment.

Question 4: Explain how diverse political, social, economic and cultural factors impact on work and the lives of people in society.

    In an organization or a society, the employees are provided with the varying political, social, economic and cultural factors. All these factors have a great impact on the lives of the people either individuals or the groups. These factors may include having a significant impact on the following:

·         Honesty: The parameters may become undefined that can better determine the honesty for the people.

·         Courtesy: People tend to become less courteous for people of different cultures.

·         Generosity: the quality of being kind may become affected due to the cross-culture environment.

·         Respect: Every one's decision needs to be given respect. This factor may be affected when people come across the varying cultures.

·         Humility: One needs to be humble towards the varying circumstances. This humility may become least considered due to the effect of workforce diversity.

·         Responsibility: Everyone’s responsibility is no one’s responsibility. In a group one should be given the rights as a leader. He should have good words with everyone even with people from different cultures. Better communication more will be the company’s revenues.

·         Gratitude: Irrespective of the fact that an employee belongs to a specific culture. He or she should be appreciated for the good-doings.

·         Perseverance: To achieve organizational goals and objectives, the employees need continuous motivation. This determination makes them more determined towards the achievement of organizational goals and the mission. The cultural differences affect it the most.

·         Compassion: The more the employees belong to similar culture, the more they will feel pain for the misfortunes of the others. Workforce diversity tends to make it reduced at the organizational level.

·         Forgiveness: Forgiveness is a good habit especially in the context of an organization. The cultural differences make the employees to less adopt this habit.

The positive impacts for the cultural differences include the following:

·         Competitive advantage: The more the employees are skilled and experienced, the more the organization gains the competitive advantage in the market place. The diversified skilled and experienced staff is only possible through the cultural diversity.

·         Innovation and creativity.

·         Attractiveness for the destinations and the tourism.

·         The efficient utilization of the cultural resources which serves as the basis for the economic growth.

·         Increased understanding for the capacity to act on the behalf of the company.

·         For the collective benefits, a slight modification in the values is also an associated benefit.

·         A great consideration for the disable ones and the minorities.

Question 5: Conduct independent research to determine the legal and ethical factors (international, national, state, territory and local) that need to be considered regarding to discrimination, human rights and rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and clients. When researching, consider the relationship between human needs and human rights and the frameworks, approaches and instruments used in the workplace.

Explain the impact of these factors on individual workers and explain the likely consequences of:

◦breaches of discrimination legislation

◦infringement of human rights including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

◦not supporting client, worker and employer rights and responsibilities in the workplace

       As far as the legal and the ethical factors are concerned, these may have a great impact on the human rights, rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and clients. To identify these factors there is a need to first define the problem, the identification of the cause, suggest the solution and then checking whether the problem is resolved or not. In the context of the human rights and the responsibilities, these factors nay include the following;

·         Differences in the rules and regulations as well as the ethical considerations. The unethical behavior may include illegal contribution to the campaigns, bribery, selling of the defective goods when you have the knowledge that the goods are not up to the mark, not providing the relevant information to the employees either senior or the junior ones as well as other acts that may cause a trouble to the business processes.

·         Another factor is about the cultural diversity. This is the parameter which cannot be defined universally. It basically serves as a representative for the values, norms, beliefs, feelings and the acts of the employees.

·         Unclear guidelines: Due to the cultural diversity, the desired outcomes might not be achieved. Although the employees are skilled and experienced but they might not be able to make the significant contributions to achieve the organizational goals because the guidelines to achieve these goals are not clear.

·         Right to decision making: The human beings from different cultures are not given the respect to the desirable level. They are not provided the equal opportunity that can make them to participate in the decision making process for the organization.

·         Efficient and effective utilization of the resources is mandatory to achieve the overall goals of the company. The skilled employees tend to generate then increased profits for the company. It is only possible if they are provided with the equal opportunity to grow and the company to get the increased competitive advantage in the market place.

·         Proper communication channel: The people from different cultures tend to face different problems when they are communicating with their peers or the employees at the upper or the lower hierarchy. The improved communication channel makes the employees to communicate more effectively.

·         Training and learning opportunities: The more the employees are provided with the opportunities to learn. The more they can learn about a specified culture. But the people from the diversified cultures might not be provided with the equal opportunities to grow and get proper knowledge and understanding about a specified culture.  

Question 6: There are a number of specific areas of diversity, the characteristics of which must be taken into consideration with regard to legislative compliance and support for human rights. List six of the key areas of diversity.

       There are a number of specific areas of diversity. These are basically the dimensions which are considered in a work place along with the consideration of the legal requirements. As per the question, following are given the six key areas of the diversity:

·         Culture: For the employees, who work either individually or in a group, the organizational culture and the cultural differences are of great importance. There are different components that make up the culture. These may include: beliefs, food, arts, politics, societal factors, arts as well as education. The diversified work force makes the organization to achieve its goals and objectives more efficiently.

·         Race: Race is a multifaceted phenomenon. The race is basically about the physiological features. This is derived from the concept of the genetic similarity that exists between the specific groups of the people. The example includes the skin colour. The other related factors are about the place of the origin, the language that is being spoken by the workers, as well as the cultural background. This parameter is mostly determined based on the social factors rather than the objective approach.

·         Ethnicity: Ethnicity is a similar concept to the race. The main difference is that ethnicity is about the social or the cultural aspects. An example may include an ethnic group having the similar or varied genetic makeup. The other features that may be shared by an ethnic group may include the language, geographic origin, as well as the religion. The criteria which serves as basis for ethnicity includes the sociological factors rather than the physiological characteristics.

·         Disability: The term disability is about a person’s inability to perform normally. This disability may be about the physical, emotional or some mental issue that prevents a person from operating in a normal manner. According to the definition, this term can make a person to stay away from the success. But mostly, the organizations have special place for such disable persons.

·         Religion: The religious parameter is about the participation of individuals, group of people or the organizations in the religious context. There may exist the difference in the level of the spiritual context. There is great impact on the culture due to the religious differences. It may affect the holidays, forms of the government as well the behaviour of the employees which is socially acceptable.

·         Spiritual beliefs: It is about the sense of being true regarding the spiritual values. These are taken in the context of something that is away from the truth of the real world. These spiritual beliefs better serve to protect the workers in a diverse working environment.