Managing Diversity in the Workplace - Essay Example

Diversity in the Workplace Organizations employ people from various backgrounds. This fosters diversity in anorganization, which promotes different talents from different individuals. Diversity adds to the pool of ideas required for an organization to succeed. It enables the work force to be proportionately distributed in the various departments of the organization, in order to perform the varied tasks required by each department. Generally, diversity refers to acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing and celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice and public assistance status (Esty et al 1-10). Diversity is a powerful tool in the growth and success of any organization today. With the increase in globalization and technology, most organizations have become multicultural. Additionally, the economy has globalized. A case study of “All-Inclusive” Real Estate Company from where I work focuses on diversity in the workplace. An analysis on the culture of the company indicates that diversity in the workplace is inevitable. Therefore, the organization’s work force must work at benefiting from it. When an organization manages diversity well, it becomes best suited to grow. On the other hand, if diversity is not well managed, it could lead to wastage of time and resources. The company has a multicultural workforce. The heterogeneous nature of the workplace highlights complex cultural relations, unified by a common goal. Employees of the company learn the organizations culture after they are employed and after they go through orientation and training. By working under guidelines set up by managers and supervisors, they get to share the vision, mission and goals of the organization. Once in the organization, employees identify with shared symbols, norms and values that the organization and its managers uphold. New employees learn to adjust to the organization, whilst the organization adjusts to them. The company highly promotes diversity, which increases more social awareness and integration. Multicultural organizations which strongly support diversity experience great social integrity (Gilbert and Ones, 685-704). The company has a diverse work force, both in its top management and its support staff. A look at some of its top officials gives a better picture of how individual differences can blend perfectly to produce a highly productive workforce. The company’s managing director, Susan is Jewish American. She exhibits power and good leadership. She believes that diversity should not hinder improvements and developments in the workplace. To implement successful changes in the organization, focus should be placed on the changes and not barriers such as culture (Beer et al 291). Her philosophy is that however diverse an organization is, the goals of the organization should cement individual differences to realize a friendly working environment. She highly promotes a good working atmosphere for employees within the organization. In addition, she encourages a cordial relationship with the organization’s clients. Susan emphasizes professionalism, aimed at ensuring integrity and competence. Her leadership is based on open communication to encourage participation from employees. She liaises with employees to assess behaviors and practices. She is supportive and open minded, attributes that she encourages everyone to acquire. She works to promote confidence in the company. Susan believes in maximizing people’s potential by encouraging them to specialize in what they do best. She often refers to the idea that proper management of diversity is advantageous in an era that emphasizes flexibility and creativity to beat competition (Cox, 50). She promotes diverse ideas by holding regular meetings with staff members to discuss any issues arising and better ways of doing things. She understands her employees and has a unique relationship with all of them. If she had her way, all employees would recite the golden rule at least thrice a day. According to her, the golden rule is what should guide employees in their relationship with each other and with clients. Everyone wants to be valued, appreciated, trusted, respected, understood and not taken for granted - that is how we want to be treated and that is the same way we should treat others (Maxwell, 5). The company team leader, Walter, is African American. He emphasizes coordination and commitment in achieving the company’s goals. Teamwork helps to make everyone feel part and parcel of the organization. He does everything to facilitate team building. Team spirit ensures shared responsibility. He orients new employees and shapes them to fit into the organization’s culture. He outlines the expectations of the organization which makes employees share the organizations’ vision. Walter makes people acquire and internalize the organizations beliefs by teaching the skills required to succeed in the industry. He focuses on the skills of innovation, accountability, assertiveness, persuasion and problem solving skills to ensure success in the industry. He highlights accountability as the most important skill in the industry as it fosters trust between agents and consumers, managers and agents and owners and managers. Accountability promotes team work and a friendly working environment. It enables the company to maintain a competitive edge in the market. It builds the company’s superior identity and makes it easy to market. Walter also dwells on making employees internalize the skills of persuasion and assertiveness, as they enable employees to be of great help to clients. Helping people find the right locations requires assertiveness and persuasion. The head of the ICT department, Mike, is Latin American. He emphasizes the need for technology in the industry. He promotes web marketing as vital in the organization’s success. Mike strives to provide viable customers with as helpful information on the company’s website as possible. He works tirelessly to design the website, ensuring that its content and structure is brilliant. His love for machines and his passion to make the company’s website convenient to clients drive him to continually keep the website updated. He also coordinates telemarketing and ensures that the company’s computers are always up and running. The updated, trendy website is a great boost to the company. It ensures a global outreach to potential clients and keeps already existing clients updated on any matters of concern. The advertising manager, Ben, uses his skills to best sell the company. He highlights unique qualities of property to clients to enable them see the value of what they hope to invest in. He points out important elements that consumers look for when buying property. Key issues that individuals look for vary from strategic location, culture, art galleries, night life, active night life, shopping opportunities, fashion, historic buildings, lifestyle to the budget. Ben works at reacting to conditions in the market to give consumers the best they can get. He makes sure that the company adapts to emerging market trends and maintains the lead. He takes a client oriented approach in meeting customer needs. He works with the principle that the customer is always right, enabling him to listen to customers and give them what they want. The human resource manager, Sophia, is American. She is in charge of ensuring that the company has sufficient qualified personnel. She is the head of the interview panel that analyzes job requirements and qualifications when hiring new employees. Potential employees are scrutinized by the panel which ensures that diverse qualifications are looked into before an individual is hired. The panel ensures transparency, objectivity, accountability and fairness in the hiring process. It encourages fairness by ensuring that assessment is more accurate, granted that it is made up of members from each department, each looking for particular qualities. Individuals who come aboard feel privileged to work for a highly rewarding organization that boasts of a superior image. The company’s support staff feels privileged to work with a highly qualified top management. The working environment is friendly and professional. The company’s goal to emerge the best in the real estate industry make the staff go above and beyond to realize this goal. Diversity in the organization enables individuals to identify their areas of expertise and maximize their talents. As a result, the company continues to grow, and so do the individuals. In conclusion, a good real estate company needs a competent corporate culture, diversified staff capabilities and strategic planning. Diversity in the workplace cements differences among people in the workplace. It promotes social integrity and encourages awareness of different professions, educational backgrounds and ethnic affiliations. It encourages appreciation of varied ideas. Variety of experiences and ideas improves performance. A combination of unique experiences from various individuals spices up an organization’s working environment, making it more enjoyable. It adds to the richness of an organization by providing better solutions in tactical situations. Valuing individual differences promotes performance. Diversity is inclusive of everyone and with diversity, everyone is happy. Diversity is strength – it is what knits the various parts of an organization together, making everyone feel part of a common goal. Works Cited Beer, Michael, Russel A. Eisenstat and Bert Spector. “The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal”. Harvard Business Press, Nov 1, 1990. Print. Cox, Taylor. Cultural Diversity in Organizations. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 1993. Print. Esty, Katharine, Richard Griffin and Marcie Schorr-Hirsh. Workplace Diversity. A Manager’s Guide to Solving Problems and Turning Diversity into a Competitive Advantage. Avon, Adams Media Corporation. 1995. Print. Gilbert, Jacqueline A. and Deniz S. Ones. “Role of Informal Integration in Career Advancement: Investigations in Plural and Multicultural Organizations and aImplications for Diversity Evaluation.” Sex Roles (1998) 39:9/10:685-704. Print. Maxwell, John C. There's No Such Thing As "Business" Ethics: There's Only One Rule For Making Decisions. New York: Center Street, 2003. Print. Read More