Question

How are the behavioral, cognitive, and affective aspects of diversity related?

Answer 1

Within the abc model attitudes displayed by most individuals can be broadly categorised into three components within the abc model namely, effective, behavioural and cognitive. Attitudes generally moons of expression as well as reactions and evaluations exhibited by individuals towards various events, people, situations for ideas the encounter in daily life. Attitudes are mostly negative or positive but can also be mixed when no definite opinion is present due to lack of experience of a certain factor. Most attitudes exhibit all the three components, not necessarily in the same ratio. Relationship between social behaviour attitude measures within interracial situations concerned with economic activities has been extensively undertaken due to advent of globalisation of businesses and extensive employment of individuals from diverse cultures.

The importance of cognitive and affective aspects of attitudes which essentially lead to modification and control of behaviour has become important for all individuals operating within global environment. All the three r interrelated as behavioral changes essentially required progression through development of other stages of cognitive phase and effective face to successfully meet challenges of diversity. The cognitive space required identification of cultural Incompetence due to lack of knowledge of the cultural implications rectified by obtaining adequate knowledge of all elements of the culture and its role in defining various behavioral attitudes and the development of an awareness of the culture buy understanding all related cultural implications true recognition of various behaviours. The effective face consists of integration of the acquired knowledge of the culture and resultant awareness with the behaviour of the individual resulting in cultural sensitivity and leading to cultural competence through repeated application of such culturally appropriate practices and interventions which subsequently result in cultural proficiency which essentially integrates cultural competence into the culture of the organisation and within all professional behaviours and interactions. Absolute knowledge of all the phases of the cognitive and affective development stages leads to perfect cultural development and behaviour. The application of both the technical knowledge as well as explicit knowledge is further strengthened through constant social interaction and application of this knowledge externally within all interactions and click leads to internalization of knowledge resulting in it becoming and acquired behaviour and may overwrite much of the existing tacit knowledge which is the cultural knowledge of the birth culture. Outcome is mostly positive increase in knowledge of the culture resulting in greater acceptance and comfort in interaction with them this cultural environment socially and professionally.

Therefore, it can be understood to be the major factors which require to be implemented for improving experience of individuals from diverse cultures, working within an organisation and interacting socially through recognition and appreciation of thoughts perceptions and Impressions of people with different cultural backgrounds, by breaking down of any barriers in the form of assumptions based on prevalent mindset. This essentially encourages individuals and organisations to facilitate diversity within the organisation by embracing it rather than resisting it and recognising the need for every individual to understand the existing culture, in order to be able to accept and embrace it.

Diversity is very much a part of life as differences are built into every individual compared to another and is what makes each of us so unique that is why, it is expected that every team will essentially have a certain degree of diversity based on the education, culture and demography of the members, as globalization has resulted in acquisition of the best talent from across the globe leading to aggregation of a team with individuals from diverse backgrounds , demographies and cultures. What is a very important function of a company is to create unity within this diversity and optimize the utilization of diversity. For the team manager handling a diverse team one of the very important aspects becomes to have a very clear focus on the project at hand and the results to be achieved. In order to attain this, it is essential to build trust within the team to ensure that every member is made to feel equally important, each member is utilized on the basis of their specialized knowledge and talent and every member has a very defined role to play within the team and understands the collaboration and communication required with the rest of the team to perform his job to the best of his ability.