Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers Essay

Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers - Essay Example Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers The functions of human resource management become more varied and complex when the customers and employees are located around the world. Apart from the factors such as technology, economic systems, legal frameworks and industrial relations, the cultural factors also assume great importance in the managing of a global workforce. And the most prominent manifestation of the cultural challenge is the diversity of modern workforce. Thus the human resource in all transnational business endeavors has become increasingly diverse in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, political views, physical abilities and psychological orientation. This essay aims to explore the thesis that efficient management of a multicultural workforce can serve as a pool of opportunities for businesses that cater to a multicultural customer base. The concept of culture is difficult to define in explicit terms. On a broad and generalized level, culture refers to the set of characteristics and features that defines a group and separates it from other groups. The famous social psychologist Florence Kluckholn has defined culture as â€Å"a patterned way of thinking, feeling, and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, and constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts.† The expert organizational scholar Geert Hofstede has described culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one human group from another†.

The influence of the holy mosque of Mecca within popular culture Essay

The influence of the holy mosque of Mecca within popular culture - Essay Example The city of Mecca and the holy mosque has changed over the years. The pilgrimage in Mecca draws around two million to three million people from all over the world to go worship at the Mosque. The city has now become a modern spectacle and people talk about going to Mecca simply because it is popular and not for the significance of it and the pilgrimage (Bosworth, 2007). People send a lot of photos and messages from the site and share them on social media. The popular culture has a lot of influence on people all over the world. People have the pressure of sharing the information and experience of the pilgrimage with the world. The pilgrimage at Mecca has been described as being in twenty super bowls with two million people play the game. The holiest part of the pilgrimage is put to the side, and people decide to focus on all the hype and fun of millions of people visiting Mecca (Stefano, 2000). Saudi Arabia gets a lot of revenue from the event, and it has improved the countrys economy immensely. Mecca has a powerful influence on the other Muslim nations and the Muslims look for opportunities and a chance to be able to visit Mecca in their lifetime (Bosworth, 2007). Most of the people interviewed concerning their reasons for wanting to visit Mecca have answers connected to popular culture instead of it being a holy land. Most of the people want to visit the city and the mosque because it is popular, and people who visit them are considered important in the world. Visiting the city during the annual Hajj is quite expensive, and there are several festivities that accompany the pilgrimage. It is a luxury to visit the city, and people want to go visit the place to have a respectable name in the society. Western culture has a significant influence on the events that take place in Mecca. The people who can afford to go to the holy mosque are urged to make sure they go. The current culture in the world has made Hajj be an event of