Cultural diversity training is used to address the unique characteristics of employees in the workplace. A diverse range of human traits such as gender, age, ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, nationality, and language are among the unique qualities that are inevitable for Company executives to consider in the twenty-first century for the success of businesses. Training employees on the implications of cultural diversity at the place of work is of great significance as it moves them into embracing the differences among fellow employees at the workplace, thereby focusing on the value of their inputs and varied perspectives for the company. Hussain et al. (2020) reports that training employees on diversity issues play a significant role in addressing minority groups who may suffer stereotypes, bias, and discrimination in everything, including company marketing materials and literature, to the materials required for diversity training. According to Fujimoto and Härtel (2017 ), the effectiveness of diversity training can be achieved when a company 1) lays down inclusive company culture, 2) when it embraces, seeks out, and respects the decision-making approaches of the diverse employees rather than tolerating them, and 3) builds proper understanding within its workforce that goes beyond rules and regulations.
Benefits of Cultural Diversity Training
Several studies have been conducted in recent years to establish the relationship between cultural diversity and organizational aspects such as sales revenue, profit margin, and customer base. For example, a study conducted by Cedric Herring in an empirical examination of cultural diversity implications at the workplace revealed that racially diverse and gender-balanced organizations reported positive results in their business outcomes, unlike those that did not embrace diversity. The companies that embrace diversity recorded an increased customer base, unlike their counterparts that did not. It is estimated that, on average, racially diverse companies report an average of 35000 clients as opposed to 22700 from companies with low racial diversity rates. However, disparities in gender diversity rates among companies reveal more considerable differences. Studies report that companies that have embraced gender diversity received an average of 15000 more clients than those with low gender diversity.
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Secondly, diversity moves beyond political correctness and fuels innovation among the workforce as individuals bring with them different experiences, viewpoints, decision-making, and critical thinking skills to company discussions. The Harvard Business Review defines inherent diversity as the traits that individuals possess from their birth, such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, and gender. On the other hand, acquired diversity refers to characteristics gained from working experiences ( Fujimoto & Härtel, 2017 ). A study carried out to scrutinize inherently and acquired diversity, 40 case studies, and a representative survey on 1800 professionals revealed that companies whose leadership integrated the two dimensions of diversity, i.e., inherent and acquired diversity, out-performed the others in innovation. Furthermore, working in a foreign country instills an appreciation of cultural differences in an individual. Similarly, selling products to consumers of the opposite gender enables one to become "gender smart." Therefore, it is imperative that as diversity improves within an organization, employee productivity and satisfaction increase. Thus having a ripple effect on the customer base, company innovations and profits, relative to its competitors, with one study reporting 37% more sales among happy employees and salespeople.
Legal Implications of Cultural Diversity Training
When diversity training is successful, employees feel a sense of inclusivity and part of joint organizational effort. However, it is important to consider the existing legal implications when creating cultural diversity training courses, such as the laws and regulations involved in creating a training course on culture ( Hussain et al., 2020). Company leadership is responsible for ensuring that organizational training models on cultural diversity comply with state laws governing equality within the workplace by considering the religious, ethnic, racial, and individual traits of employees. When workers believe that action against them can be perceived in discriminatory terms, they may face legal problems. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the United States outlaws discrimination against workers based on stereotypes and bias on the varied aspects of human diversity. Companies may face severe financial penalties to cover for expensive and damaging employee claims when discriminatory allegations are proven.
Secondly, the Equality Act of 2010 protects employees against victimization, harassment, and discrimination based on race, color, age, disability, and sexual orientation. Employers who are not aware of proper management of their workforce's cultural diversity are at higher risks of compensating employees for claims of discrimination ( Webb, 2021) . The Equality Act holds organizations vicariously liable for acts of discrimination experienced in the course of the employment. Besides, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act can be utilized by employees to forward claims regarding bullying or unfair dismissal by employers to the relevant legal authorities since they illegalize age discrimination and employee harassment. Therefore, employers must ensure that their employees are thoroughly informed on the acceptable and unacceptable engagements within the organization since the claims of discrimination, whether intended or not, can be acted upon by legal institutions to the disadvantage of the business.
Demographic Implications on Cultural Diversity Training
Many demographic groups in the workplace experience varying challenges due to unique work environments. Therefore, it is crucial to manage the challenges regarding religion, gender, race, and sexual orientation demographics in the workplace. For example, gender demographic studies reveal that the earnings of women are significantly affected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported women working full-time as earning 79% of the median earnings of full-time working men in 2008 ( Guillaume et al., 2017 ). The earnings gap is explained in a myriad of ways by popular media. Some report that the high likelihood of taking time off to have children by women subjects their resumes to certain gaps that lower their earnings potential since many families consider women as the primary caregivers for children, thereby limiting them from job tenure accumulation. However, other explanations provide that women have a reduced likelihood of pursuing more lucrative occupations such as business and engineering. The stereotypes on women’s occupational capabilities have significant impacts on the cultural diversity of an organization. Therefore, it is important to increase employee training and enhance communication within the workplace to create awareness of stereotypes, bias, and discrimination on women's wages.
Furthermore, studies reveal that women show specific references on jobs that provide them with opportunities to form new friendships, interpersonal relations, easy commute, and reasonable hours as compared to men ( Guillaume et al., 2017 ). However, men prefer occupations that offer leadership, power, challenge, freedom, and promotion opportunities. Organizations with fewer women are less likely to initiate negotiations, and when they do, studies suggest that women are less likely to achieve desired outcomes. Because of the difference in negotiation outcomes, women have been subjected to lower starting salaries than men. This issue largely impacts the diversity of organizations over the years. Several lawsuits abound on gender discrimination regarding pay, with stereotypes and prejudices being the leading causes. According to Webb (2021 ), workplace gender discrimination is experienced by women twelve times more than men.
Ethical Implications
It requires special effort to ensure the ethicality of organizational conduct when dealing with diverse workers. Employees with diverse backgrounds have varying degrees of ethical standards because of their demographic traits and experiences. The most significant ethical concern that arises when creating a diversity training course is gender differences. Studies show that the ethicality in judging financial issues is the same for both men and women. However, when it comes to breaking organizational policies and regulations, the standards for judging ethics take a different format, usually favorable to women and unfavorable to men. The other demographic component that influences individuals' standards of judging ethics is age. According to Son (2020) , gender differences diminish with an increase in age. For example, one study revealed that younger employees did not see anything wrong with some behaviors such as bluffing and misrepresenting information. In contrast, older respondents found them to be unethical.
Since cultures differ in their perception of what is ethical, cultural diversity creates significant challenges to organizations' management. When developing a cultural diversity training course, it is particularly important to consider cross-cultural differences. A case study comparing Americans' and Russians' reactions to sharing an audit company's information with third-party clients showed that Americans consider the event as more unethical than Russians' reactions on the same issue. Other questionable organizational practices such as sharing insider information, nepotism, and software piracy are relatively ethical in other countries such as Korea and India. In contrast, the same is considered unethical in the United States. However, damage to the environment received significant opposition from the Asian countries as more unethical, whereas the U.S showed fewer concerns to environmental ethics ( Webb, 2021) . Different ethical standards held by diverse societies may provide different perspectives on ethical and unethical behavior. Therefore, organizations need to think through overseas nations' ethical context when formulating cultural diversity training courses for their workforce.
Global Training Standardization
Global training is tailored to meet the needs of a much wider audience from all over the world. The training development strategies and training should be packaged so that all the employees' needs can be effectively addressed. Organizations with diverse employees always triumph over those that are homogenous. However, the organization might face significant challenges when training its global workforce when no specific diversity training strategies are laid down ( Andriotis, 2018) . The challenges arise due to diversity in the languages spoken by the employees from different nations, different time zones, and cultures, making sending specific messages to the workers quite tedious ( Lacerenza et al., 2017 ) . Also, the high costs of training a global workforce might prove to be an obstacle to organizations. Nevertheless, there are some strategies that companies can use to standardize the international training of their workforce.
First, the organization should adopt a single approach for teaching all topics, and the approach would apply to all the regions. The training content's delivery and design should be tailored through one standard method, such as e-learning. The content can then be developed using a single language and maintaining the content for all the employees ( Andriotis, 2018) . By standardizing one approach for all the topics, content creation becomes more manageable and less expensive as all the training processes are controlled by a team from the organization's headquarters. Secondly, each topic can also be standardized. This strategy employs a single approach for teaching each topic to employees around the globe. The course remains standardized, but the topics may be different in the way they are delivered. It provides flexibility in course designing as other topics can be subjected to a learning management system. Also, each topic's standardized approach can provide one-on-one instructions and on-the-job learning to the employees wherever they are. It is important to note that different cultures or regions require different learning methodologies, and a single strategy may not be applicable for every area.
Recommendations for Training Course Implementation
Training employees on cultural diversity is a significant move toward companies' success since it heightens efficiency, productivity, and profitability. The management has to ensure that training is deliberate and impactful as training 'for the sake of training' may lead to a waste of company efforts when employees fail to apply what they learn within the workplace ( Lacerenza et al., 2017 ). To achieve sustainability in cultural diversity training, several recommendations have been offered. First, the company must define its goals and develop training strategies relevant to meeting those goals. The objectives may include improving workers relations or increasing the company productivity. Secondly, employee engagement during the training is critical for the success of the global training and must ensure that employees' needs are addressed. Training techniques such as scenario-based learning may help to keep them engaged by immersing them in practical learning experiences as part of their work instead of providing excessive theoretical knowledge ( Lozano & Escrich, 2017) . Thirdly, getting the right time to engage the employees in global training is essential to avoid draining their time and energy while focusing on quality rather than quantity. Finally, once the activity is initiated and finished, it is vital to track the results and evaluate them. The evaluation is achieved by measuring different organizational parameters and goals before and after the training to analyze the differences.
Conclusion
Cultural diversity training is used to address employees' unique characteristics in the workplace, such as gender, age, ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, sexual orientation. Diversity fuels innovation among the workforce as individuals bring different experiences, viewpoints, and decision-making skills to company discussions. When workers believe that action against them can be perceived as discriminatory, they may expose the company to serious legal problems. Training employees through scenario-based learning techniques may help to keep employees engaged by immersing them in practical learning experiences while they work. Therefore, cultural diversity training is vital for companies' success since it amplifies efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
References
Andriotis, N. (2018). Creating Effective Global Training and Development Strategies. Retrieved 12 April 2021, from https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2018/01/global-training-development-strategies.html
Fujimoto, Y., & Härtel, C. E. (2017). Organizational Diversity Learning Framework: Going Beyond Diversity Training Programs. Personnel Review.
Guillaume, Y. R., Dawson, J. F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2017). Harnessing Demographic Differences in Organizations: What Moderates the Effects of Workplace Diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.
Hussain, B., Sheikh, A., Timmons, S., Stickley, T., & Repper, J. (2020). Workforce Diversity, Diversity Training and Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the UK National Health Service. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 20(2), 201-221.
Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., Marlow, S. L., Joseph, D. L., & Salas, E. (2017). Leadership Training Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(12), 1686.
Lozano, J. F., & Escrich, T. (2017). Cultural Diversity in Business: A Critical Reflection on the Ideology of Tolerance. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(4), 679-696.
Son, H. (2020). Implementing an Effective Training Program. Retrieved 13 April 2021, from https://talkingtalent.prosky.co/articles/implementing-an-effective-training-program
Webb, C. (2021). Cultural and Diversity Training. Retrieved 13 April 2021, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/cultural-diversity-training-4974.html
