Nova Southeastern University
H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship
MGT 5012– Twenty First Century Management Practices
Date of Submission: March 17, 2013
Title of Assignment: Managing Cultural Diversity
Syllabus: MGT 5012- 21st Mgmt Practices 26

Over the years, the workforce has grown to have diverse groups of people working together. Diversity is defined as the differences or dissimilarities among people.
These differences can be age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, education, experience, and any characteristic used to distinguish between people. (Jones, 2011) To understand the present, a look at the history of diversity in the workplace will be discussed. I will research and discuss the cultural diversity and how managers today have evolved over the years to learn how to handle it. I will discuss certain steps that managers can take to effectively manage the diversity in their workplace. I will look into the business etiquette and protocol of countries like the United States, Mexico, and Japan. I will also look into where these countries fall on Hofstede’s model of national culture. I will also discuss why it’s important for mangers to learn about a culture they are not familiar with when doing business to make sure they don’t offend the other person or company.
History of Diversity in the Workplace The workforce slowly changed after World War II as a growing number of minority groups began to speak up and demand fairness among the workers. (Wagner, 1999). In the 18th century up to about 1930, the modern workplace was a “man’s world.” Women that were employed typically occupied the positions of clerk, typists, secretaries or other office positions. Minorities that were in the workplace, typically African-Americans were segregated to work in the service industry such as servants, porters and other manual