Harnessing the Power of Intercultural Diversity for Innovation and Progress

Global Diversity: The Strength Behind Our Success

At Morgan Philips Germany, our diverse workforce forms the bedrock of our success. With a near equal mix of gender (approximately 60% female and 40% male), we foster an environment of equality and balance. Our team members represent a wide array of nationalities, further enriching our cultural diversity. This heritage diversity, spanning from Aramean to India, the United Kingdom, Germany, and beyond, is something we cherish and leverage for our collective benefit.

The Benefits of Intercultural Diversity in the Workplace

We do live in a global world. In a world with less borders in terms of traveling, communication and work. Work is determined by its task and purpose, not by geographical or cultural boarders, even though sometimes problems may arise. Have a look at politics. There are different tendencies and directions, people have different ideas regarding globalization and geopolitics does its part. This should be kept in mind but not influence.

We do embrace diversity as we have to do with humans and we are aware of its benefit:

• Diversity in a workplace will contribute intrinsically  to bring a range of perspectives and ideas regarding creative problem solving and decision making. People from different backgrounds and cultures may think differently, may approach a problem differently. They have different norms, priorities, a different perception of things, different experiences and more ideas. This means you are aware of and consider more possible options, you are more creative and thus innovative and productive. An intercultural team may avoid alike stereotypes and groupthink but rather ensure that all perspectives are considered.

This will contribute to an inspirational, creative “out of the box thinking” and reminds of the Design Thinking approach in product and business development.

• Interculturality will help to build better communication and relationships with talents, clients and stakeholders from different cultures or a global work scale, international companies. Businesses are already and increasingly operating in diverse cultural contexts. For managers it is crucial to have a good understanding of differences generally and of different communication styles, values and business practices. This understanding will help managers to build trust, to make others feel psychologically safe. Also, it will help avoid misunderstandings, frustration, intolerance, offensiveness and problems of being stuck in a situation. Interculturality and diversity help to stay dynamic.
• Promoting interculturality and diversity in the workplace can help to attract and retain a talented diverse workforce which leads to improved business performance. Many employees value diversity and inclusivity and an alike workplace becomes attractive to them. More options on both sides open up, a broader pool of excellent talents and more possibilities in global organizations on the other side. Definitely a win – win.
• Managers embracing diversity do have and attract better soft skills. They have a better ability to communicate verbally and non-verbally, do understand dynamics and structural occurrences within and outside the organization. They know how to build relationships and maintain them, they collaborate with efficiency what leads to better teamwork and productivity. They leverage the variety of their employees, they establish equity and recognize conflicts and challenges faster and address them better. They know how to benefit from different ideas and points of view but they also know how to compensate and mediate. They learn.  All this leads to more engagement, higher job satisfactions and better retention rates within the system. It also leads to better relations outside the system, with suppliers, cooperation companies, clients, decision makers and regulating entities.  

In summary interculturality and intercultural skills are critical for a global innovative and competitive business world and for successful  leadership in today’s diverse and interconnected world.

Inclusion, tolerance, an open mind, acceptance and appreciation of others are the base for human sustainability and the future of mankind.

This is part of Morgan Philips’ company culture. We believe in humans and their future.

No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive” Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer, politician, social activist and writer

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities” Stephen Richards Covey, Author and Professor at Huntsman School of Business

We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges” Tim Berners-Lee, Computer Scientist, inventor of www, Professor at MIT and research fellow at University of Oxford