Glass Ceiling and Diverse Workforce - Essay Example

Contemporary Issue in Business and Management - Glass Ceiling and Diverse Workforce - Total Number of Words 999 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 3 2. Main Drivers Which Have Made Most Multinational Companies Push for the Need to Integrate Workforce Diversity in the Company’s HR Policies and Practices ………………................................................................ 4 3. Benefits and Advantages of Creating and Managing a Diverse Workforce ...……. 6 4. Common Challenges That Most HR Managers Would Experience When Creating Workforce Diversity ................................................................................................ 7 5. Conclusion and Recommendations ………………………………………………... 8 References ………………………………………………………………………………. 10–13 1. Introduction Since the era of globalisation, a lot of large-scale firms have decided to shift or expand their main business operations in emerging countries in order to benefit from relatively lower fixed operational costs (i.e. cheaper salary, taxes, and cost of electricity, etc.), increase the companies’ market share and market value, improve the overall business growth, and take advantage of economies-of-scale among others (Robbins and Coulter, 2014, p. 91; Krug, 2009, p. 76; Salvatore, 2004). Through economies-of-scale, large-scale businesses can increase their competitive advantage in the world market. In general, workforce diversity is all about having a workforce that is composed of people with ‘different human qualities and/or belongs to various cultural groups’ (Daft, 2008, p. 333). In line with this, Janssens and Zanoni (2005) explained that workforce diversity acknowledges the importance of one or more socio-demographic traits which includes age, ethnicity, race, and gender. In response to globalisation, most multinational companies today that operates globally. To ensure that all business organisations are able to benefit from its available human resources, HR managers are being challenged on how they can effectively integrate workforce diversity in the company’s HR policies and practices. As part of addressing the main purpose of this study, the main drivers which have made most multinational companies push for the need to integrate workforce diversity in the company’s HR policies and practices will be identified and tackled in details. After discussing the benefits and advantages of creating and managing a diverse workforce, several common challenges that most HR managers would experience when creating workforce diversity will be highlighted in this study. In relation to the main challenges that most HR managers would experience when creating workforce diversity, business management issues related to glass ceiling will be considered throughout the entire discussion. 2. Main Drivers Which Have Made Most Multinational Companies Push for the Need to Integrate Workforce Diversity in the Company’s HR Policies and Practices Glass ceiling is one of the main drivers that can make most multinational companies push for the need to integrate workforce diversity in their companies’ HR policies and practices. Specifically, the concept of glass ceiling is all about organisational barriers that prevent women and the minorities from being able to reach the top management position or discrepancy in wage distribution (i.e. gender pay gaps) (Akpinar-Sposito, 2013; Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, p. 116). In relation to glass ceiling, other types of work-related discrimination include: (1) discriminatory policies and practices; (2) sexual harassment; (3) intimidation; (4) mockery and insults; (5) exclusion; and (6) incivility (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, p. 115). A good example of a company currently experiencing the case of glass ceiling is Virgin Company in UK. Basically, Virgin Company operates in more than 50 countries and employs more than 50,000 people all over the world (Virgin, 2014). Recently, it was reported on the Guardian (2014) website that some employees at Virgin Company suffer from issues related to workplace gender discrimination. As a result, the victims of workplace discrimination could suffer from serious depression, distraction at work, and feeling exhausted (Guardian, 2014). To solve problems related to workplace gender discrimination, Virgin Company decided to ‘integrate diversity and inclusion’ in their business (Virgin Media, 2014). Also related to the concept of glass ceiling, another possible cultural constraint and challenge that most global managers are facing include racial discrimination caused by personal bias and stereotyping (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, pp. 114–115). For instance, most African Americans are the ones who are mostly employed in low-ranking position whereas the white Americans are mostly the ones who can get a better paying job. In some cases, personal bias has something to do with racial discrimination at work (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, p. 114). In case the HR manager has a preconceived belief that the white Americans are much superior and more knowledgeable than the African Americans, then there is a strong tendency for the white Americans to get better jobs than the African Americans. In general, a business organisation is composed of majority and minority groups. After examining how respect could affect the feelings of a subgroup in terms of being able to develop a positive organisational attitude that could promote unity and diversity among the white Americans, African Americans, and Latinos, the study of Huo and Molina (2006) revealed that subgroup respect is present among the members of the ethnic minority groups particularly among the Latinos and African Americans but not the white Americans. Based on the authors’ findings, white Americans often practise ingroup favouritism more than subgroup respect. Therefore, to avoid internal conflicts, it is necessary on the part of the major groups to promote work diversity among the minority groups in order to enhance the overall business profitability and performance of a company (Maalouf, 2003). As a common knowledge, most multinational companies would enter into merger and acquisition as a way of gaining access to a wide-range of talented employees (Krug, 2009, p. 73), create more shareholders’ and stakeholders’ value (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2014, p. 196), and ensure that investment in foreign countries is be faster and easier (Parker, 2005, p. 230). As a result of entering into a merger and acquisition process, internal conflicts may arise due to gender discrimination and the different racial, religious, and ethnic background of each employee as well as the absence of two-way communication process between two or more employees or between the managers and the employees (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, pp. 114–115; Lindsey et al., 2013; Chew, Change and Petrovic-Lazarevic, 2006). With this in mind, one can argue that one of the possible drivers that can motivate the global managers to integrate workforce diversity in their HR policies and practices include the need to avoid organisational problems related to internal conflicts (Chew, Change and Petrovic-Lazarevic, 2006). Lastly, most of business organisations today are focused on promoting the importance of cultural diversity at work not only because the UK employment law requires employers to treat employees equally but also to create a positive public image and increase the company’s profitability by enhancing the quality of its business operations (Corner and Soliman, 1996). For example, in relation to human rights, the UK government decided to implement Equality Act 2006 in order to promote diversity and equality throughout the United Kingdom (Office of Public Sector Information, 2009a). Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was implemented in order to legally avoid discrimination against people with physical disability (Office of Public Sector Information, 2009b). Amended in 1986, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was purposely implemented in order to avoid gender inequality and sexual harrassment within the workplace environment (legislation.gov.uk, 1975). 3. Benefits and Advantages of Creating and Managing a Diverse Workforce In the process of creating a culture that observes workforce diversity, a company can benefit from having a large group of talented and highly skilled workers (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, p. 101). Aside from improving the team’s collective creativity (Tadmor et al., 2012; Roberge and van Dick, 2010), Tadmor et al. (2012) revealed that the multicultural experience each employee could have within the workplace can somehow increase each employee’s creativity at the individual level. In line with this, Parrotta, Pozzoli and Pytlikova (2012) explained that each employee can further improve their knowledge and skills through ‘creativity and knowledge spillovers’. According to Parrotta, Pozzoli and Pytlikova (2012), workforce diversity in terms of education can create an added value to the company whereas workforce diversity related to demographic and ethnicity can create negative effects on company’s productivity. On the other hand, workforce diversity, when combined with the concept of employee inclusion, could somehow increase employees’ sense of uniqueness and belongingness (Shore et al., 2011). Due to the fact that workforce diversity strongly promotes product and service innovation, several studies conclude that the process of being able to integrate workforce diversity in business strategies can somehow increase the company’s overall business performance (Roberge and van Dick, 2010). 4. Common Challenges That Most HR Managers Would Experience When Creating Workforce Diversity Entering into merger and acquisition can fail because of ‘financial, strategic, behavioural, operational, and cross-cultural aspects’ (Cartwright and Schoenberg, 2006, p. S1; Marks and Mervis, 2001). In line with this, Gertsen and Soderberg (1998) explained that cross-cultural factors can create fear and resentment which may lead to a failed merger and acquisition. For this reason, even though creating a culture that observes workforce diversity, a company can benefit from having a large group of talented and highly skilled workers (Andrews and Schlappa, 2014, p. 101), global managers can still face a lot of constraints and challenges when it comes to developing a culture that promotes workforce diversity. For instance, following merger and acquisition, it is common for some employees to show signs of resistance to change due to fear of losing their ‘old organizational culture’ (Sanda and Adjei-Benin, 2011, p. 27; Guerrero, 2008). Instead of supporting the implementation of latest business strategies, employees who refuse to support organisational change may impede the process of creating a diverse workforce. 5. Conclusion and Recommendations To enable the global managers effectively handle a large group of diverse employees, it is necessary to improve their leadership and communication skills (Nodeson et al., 2012; Nikolaou et al., 2007; Chew, Change and Petrovic-Lazarevic, 2006). In most cases, the use of an effective leadership style can encourage, persuade and motivate more employees to support organisational change such as the need to integrate diversity and inclusion in business (Nodeson et al., 2012). Likewise, the use of effective listening and communication skills can help minimise internal conflicts caused by miscommunication between the global managers and employees (Chew, Change and Petrovic-Lazarevic, 2006). Therefore, through the use of effective leadership and communication strategies, global managers will have a better chance of being able to meet the new organisational goals related to solving problems on workforce diversity. Every country has a different culture. For example, countries such as the United States, Anglo countries, Nordic countries, and the Netherlands are characterised by having low ‘power distance’ and low ‘uncertainty avoidance’, whereas countries and regions such as Eastern Europe, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Taiwan and Thailand are characterised by having a high score on both ‘power distance’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance’ (Aswathappa, 2008, p. 185). Based on Hofstede’s value dimension framework, ‘power distance’ means that people in general consider unequal distribution of power within the workplace environment to be normal (Pauleen, 2007, p. 180; Joynt and Warner, 2002, p. 108), whereas ‘uncertainty avoidance’ pertains to the degree at which people would perceive uncertain situations as something that is threatening (Aswathappa, 2008, p. 184). With this in mind, countries with a high score on ‘power distance’ means that people who live in these countries tend to follow authoritative power within the business organisation (Pauleen, 2007, p. 180), whereas ‘uncertainty avoidance’ means that people respect and carefully abide by laws, rules and regulations (Brebbia and Zubir, 2012, p. 576). To gain a better understanding of the cultural background and preferred management style in each country worldwide, the global managers should make full use of Hofstede’s value dimension framework. Using this particular framework, the global managers can easily solve problems related to individual and group relationship, social inequality, gender issues, and uncertainties related to socio-economic issues (Mueller, 2011, p. 136). For example, under Hofstede’s value dimension framework, the term ‘power distance’ is pertaining to the degree by which the less powerful employees would accept the idea that power distribution will always be unequal (Joynt and Warner, 2002, p. 108). Basically, ‘high power distance’ means that employees are most likely willing to accept workplace inequalities whereas ‘low power distance’ implies that employees are not willing to accept workplace inequalities (Daft, Kendrick and Vershinina, 2010, p. 136). 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