Managing Diversity at the Workplace (Essay Sample)

Managing Diversity at the Workplace
1 1. Introduction and Background
Management in the current century is centred on globalization and elimination of trade barriers. As a result of globalization of markets and trade, businesses are now expanding their operations to other regions of the world. New markets are ventured into and multinational corporations have to work with human resources from diverse backgrounds. In order to effectively cope with the modern business trends and at the same time enhance competitiveness in the various industries, managers have to source employees from various backgrounds. Therefore, the current workforce is composed of employees of mixed cultural backgrounds, sexes, ages, educational background and other common parameters that are used to measure diversity (Gumina, 2011). Managers, therefore, have to put in place appropriate strategies to manage workforce diversity in order to meet the desired business goals and objectives.
2 Paradigms in Diversity Management at the Workplace
There are two major paradigms that managers can use to effectively manage a diverse workforce. These are discussed in this section.
1 The Human Resource Paradigm to Diversity Management
The traditional and controversial human resource management policies often tend to generate a perpetual homogeneity in the workplace. This is mainly due to the attraction- selection-attrition (A_S_A) cycle that most managers use in recruiting, selecting and retaining of top talents in their organizations (Sneeches, 2014). However, in the recent years, human resource manager have seen the sense in putting in place workplace diversity for various reasons. Under this paradigm are four major approaches that managers can use to effectively implement and manage diversity at their workplaces. These are outlined below.
1 Diversity Enlargement
This approach is based on the notion that managers need to source employees from various backgrounds with respect to ethnic and cultural origins. The major goal of this approach is to change the organizational culture and to eliminate monotony of traditions that are adopted in the organization (Reed, 2011). Managers that are after making their organizations learning centres put in place diversity within the workforce to ensure that their employees learn from each other and are motivated enough to perform at the expected standards.
2 Diversity Sensitivity
Even though introduction of different cultures and ethnicities to the organization is a positive idea, managers have to be aware of the challenges that this is likely to bring to the business. Issues such as discrimination and biasness are likely to arise. Therefore, in managing diversity, a good manager has to ensure that all employees go through diversity training sessions in order to equip them with knowledge of the need to refrain from stereotyping and discriminating against other employees (Mujtaba, 2006).
3 Cultural Audit
This approach to diversity management is inclined towards identifying the barriers to the progress of employees in a diverse workforce. In this case, external consultants are outsourced by the managers to look into some of the possible barriers to effective management of diverse any diverse workforce (Reed, 2011). It is from these internal studies that proper policies are generated to help in effective management of workforce diversity.
4 Achieving Organizational Goals and Outcomes
This approach visualizes diversity as tool for organizational ends. This means that managers have to come up with appropriate ways to link diversity to the overall goals of the organization (Kossek, Lobel & Brown, 2011). The business has to keep up with its core business activities in spite of the policies that are put in place. Therefore, managers are required to put in place diversity as a strategy towards achievement of business objectives.
2 The Multicultural Paradigm
This is the second paradigm that managers use to understand what it is required of effective workforce diversity management (Reed, 2011). Under this paradigm are various approaches that managers use to regulate diversity issues within their organizations. The major approaches are discussed in the sections below.
5 The monolithic Organization
In this case, the organization is said to be both demographically and culturally homogenous. Like in the case of most Chinese companies in which most employees are Han Chinese, these organizations hardly have any room for diversity (Sneeches, 2014). Managers of such organizations are those that believe in uniformity of culture within their organizations.
6 The Plural Organization
In this case heterogeneity exists in the organization's workforce. Managers that adopt this approach are those that conform to the laws of public policy which require that workplace equality and diversity have to be embraced by all managers. Plural organizations, however, have a limit to the extent to which diverse people can be brought in as employees of the organization depending on the existing culture (Harold & Kumar, 2012).
7 The Multicultural Organization
This is considered to be the ideal organization. Hardly to managers operate to this level. In this case, the organization can work with people from all regions of the world provided that such persons have all the desired skills and talents required by the organization (Syed & Özbilgin, 2010).
1 Effects and Responses to Workforce Diversity
The effects of workforce diversity can mainly be gauged from business performance. Therefore, it is important that managers put in place effective workforce management approaches in order to realize the positive effects.
3 Positive Effects of Workforce Diversity Management
8 Competitive Advantage
Multinational Corporations (MNCs) prefer hiring employees from different countries with the primary objective of remaining at a stronger competitive position. In this case, diversity is used as a market positioning tool. Most consumers prefer doing business with people of the same culture. Therefore, in order to attract many customers and generate super-profits, managers find it more reasonable to recruit diverse human resources (Dike, 2013). An example is the case of the current mobile phone companies. The retailers of these companies, for instance those of Samsung Electronics (SE) are employed from the target markets.
9 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Implications
Companies have an obligation to give back to the societies from which they operate. Therefore, by providing equal employment opportunities across cultures, human resource managers act as key drivers of CSR initiatives (Dike, 2013). This increases the rate of acceptance of the companies within their demographic environments.
10 Employee Motivation and Education
This can be explained using the case of Apple, Inc. The company is an innovation-driven entity that operates in a very competitive industry. However, Steve Jobs, the CEO, sees the need to recruit employees from across cultures and ethnicities in order to instil motivation and inter-personal education among the employees (Qiao & Conyers, 2014). Various outlets of the products of Apple, Inc. such as personal computers and tablets are run by the natives of different cultures. Through this, the company's rate of innovation and creativity has been boosted.
Organizational Development
With increased rates of idea generation from across cultures and other parameters of diversity, organizations are able to expand their operations to different regions. It is through effective diversity management that multinational corporations keep expanding their operations to new market segments (Loden & Rosener, 2012).
4 Negative Effects of Workforce Diversity Management
Costs
The cost of putting in place effective workforce diversity management is high. For this reason, smaller organizations are barred from taking part in diversity implementation and management.
Discrimination and Workplace Conflicts
To some extent, diversity creates rifts between various groups within the organization. For this reason, the minority groups may feel discriminated against by the larger groups. In order to control the situation, effective diversity managers have to come up with appropriate methodologies for forming workgroups and teams within their organizations (Garnero & Rycx, 2014).
5 Responses to Workforce Diversity (Case Analyses)
As a result of the benefits and limitations of workforce diversity, industries have responded differently to the idea of putting in place effective workforce diversity management plans. The case studies of the automobile industry (using Ford Company) and the computer industry (using the IBM Company) are used for illustrations.
Diversity Management at Ford
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