HRM and Workplace Diversity Awareness - Assignment Example

Running Header: HRM and Workplace Diversity Awareness First Names: Student Number: Institution: Course Number: Course Name: Assignment Due Date: Title Report The relationship between HRM and diversity awareness Introduction In the contemporary society, the management of workplace diversity has become very critical. This is perhaps of its role in ensuring that differences that exist among individuals are taken into consideration. With this regard therefore the relationship that exists between the human resource management (HRM) and diversity awareness is of great importance. This is because proper understanding of the various differences that exist among the employees and the ways in ways which they can be attended to (Beer et al 2004). At workplace, it’s important always to understand that people from all sorts of life do exist and they may have very divergent values and beliefs. The essence of workplace diversity management is to ensure equity for every person irrespective of his race, color, sex, age, religion and disability. Workplace diversity can also be talked of in terms of socio-economical background of an individual, family responsibility, working styles and life experience as well as educational level. In many occasions, the HRM sees the workforce as a very important and valuable asset to the organization. This is because they play a major role in ensuring that the business is able to achieve a competitive advantage. In this case therefore important that the HRM team ensures that good policies are applied from recruiting and selecting throughout commitment, training and development (Bratton and Gold 2003). In the past couple of decades, several policies have been enacted by different governments with the primary objective of ensuring that discrimination at workplace is done away with. However, the objective of this article is to present a detailed analysis of the relationship that exist between the HRM and the diversity awareness as one of the emerging conflicts that come as a result of awareness of diversity at workplace. Background of workplace diversity management Human resource management and diversity overlap at some point. While HRM is aimed at ensuring that the human resource is able to contribute positively to the business’s competitive advantage, diversity is aimed at ensuring proper management of this resource. The work of HRM is to take into account the differences that exist among the workers and what can be done to ensure well being of an individual (Beer et al 2004). Diversity also does the same work. However, the challenge has been on how to transform diversity management into enhanced organizational performance. In essence therefore it implies that high level of performance cannot be achieved if human resource management is not well structured to ensure that diversity is well adhered to and that proper management of people at workplace. Definition of workplace diversity Workplace diversity is described as the process of acknowledging the different values that are held by individuals at workplace and make good use of them. The ultimate objective of HRM is to incorporate these values to the organizational setting and at the same time ensure that equity and fairness is promoted at work. This is particularly used to ensure nobody is disadvantaged because of his status. The HRM resource management is expected to make sure that no worker is denied his rights because of sex, race, age, ethnicity or any other factor that generate into a situation where individual rights are derived off. In a working environment, everyone is unique in his own way even though to some level there some things that are common for all people. The differences that exist among the individuals can be classified into two major categories namely: visible and non-visible. However, as identified earlier, the elaborations of these characteristics are clearly outlined in the law in order to give the required protection to different individuals from kind of discrimination. Managing diversity seeks to create value for people including company employees, clients and consumers. At workplace, it’s important to ensure that fairness, justice and equality are embraced. The best management practice must seek to come up with an approach that ensure that different propositions are taken into consideration and are consistent with individual needs and company goals and objectives (Bratton and Gold 2003). Perspectives of diversity There are two major perspectives of diversity at workplace namely: unitarist and pluralist. Under the unitarist approach, the working environment is assumed to be that where individuals exist in harmony and co-operation. In a situation where the human resource managers decide to use this approach, the employees are expected to work as one team towards a common goal and organizational success. The task of the human resource management team is to work on ways in which to manage and stop conflicts that arise in the group. Conflicts in this environment are very eminent as misunderstandings are very common. This is particularly possible in a situation where communication on organizational goals and objectives is not adequately done, thus creating anxiety and a lot of speculations in the group (King 2002). In this case, conflicts are also likely to be caused by some individuals who are naturally troublemakers and commonly known as spoilers among teams. The unitarist perspective of diversity is built on different approaches which seek to explain the characteristics it entails which include: harmony, trust, common values and interests as well as objectives, individualist approach, irrationality of conflicts and the limited role of the trade unions. The trade unions in this case do not have much work to do as everything is decided for and determined for the team by the HRM. Again, as trust is expected to prevail in this context and therefore there is no need to create trade unions. This is because, the trade unions are established and engaged in situations where the employers seem not to respect the employees’ rights and they always infringe on their rights. In addition, trade unions are known not to make much impact in this case since the values and interests of all the team members are perceived to be similar (Redman and Wilkinson 2006). Under the pluralist perspective, the management recognizes that the organizational setting consist of different sections who openly seek to express their views. In this case conflict is inevitable and therefore the role of the HRM is of great significance. In order to counter and adequately manage any kind of conflicts that may prove to be harmful to the organization, the HRM, is expected to come up with an organizational structure that clearly outlines the procedures that should be followed in institutionalizing the conflict and how it should be negotiated over (Bratton and Gold 2003). This perspective of workplace diversity is characterized by a number of approaches namely: democratic processes, manageability of the conflict if the interests of individuals are acknowledged by the management team, existence of different values, interests and goals and the rationality and inevitability of the conflict. The other approaches include: active role of trade unions and collective approach of the conflict. Unlike the case of the unitarist workplace environment, the role of the trade unions in pluralist is evident and very critical in ensuring the interests of the group are protected. This is to imply that in this context, the role of the HRM is to ensure that interests of the group are listened and more democratic manner. It is the responsibility of the HRM to comply with its word by establishing a working environment whereby conflicts are recognized and addressed using appropriate approaches (Redman and Wilkinson 2006). Stereotyping process at workplace At workplace stereotyping is common and it is used by individuals to perceive and label others based on the way we understand them. Stereotyping is a process and it goes through four major steps. First, individuals at workplace try to categorise others based on such characteristics as gender, age and race as well as occupation. Second, its inferred that people in the same group do posses certain traits which are similar for instance it’s argued that all men are aggressive while women are good nurtures and the professors are absentminded. Third, expectations of others are formed and their behaviours interpreted based on our stereotypes (Truss et al 2000). Finally, stereotypes can be maintained by a number of ways which include: demonstrating high level of estimation of frequency of different stereotypes that are exhibited by others, inappropriately defining, anticipated and unanticipated individual behaviours, and trying to separate from the stereotyped individuals. In general terms, at workplace, stereotyping can be grouped into four main categories namely: sex-role stereotype, age stereotype, race stereotypes and disability stereotype. At workplace the conflict between HRM and employees prompting the intervention of trade unions, arises when the management fails to address important issues with regard to individual interests (King 2002). This is likely to possible in a situation where discrimination is evident and that the management does not practice fair leadership. In other words, the managerial conflict with the employees is accelerated by the existence of unfair treatment of employees because of their interests, values and perceptions as well as their perceived stereotype groups. In such as situation, individuals feel demeaned and therefore tend to react towards the management. At workplace, diversity is important and ought to be improved in order to create awareness and good coexistence among the team members. In order to improve diversity, it’s important to always recognize that we do not always understand everything, watch on reactions and analyse our own reactions against those of others. This is particularly important in understanding on the way we perceive ourselves and others according to Kathy and John (2001). Approach to methodology The approach to methodology describes the various tools and techniques that the author of this article had used to analyse and interpret the conflict that exists between the HRM and the workplace diversity awareness. In many years it has been recognised that employees unions play a very critical role in presenting and championing employee rights. The trade unions play the role of negotiating on behalf of the workers with their employer. The objective of doing this is to find out ways of reaching a common ground where both the employer and employee interests are agreed upon. In methodology two major approaches can be used to study or investigate further into this phenomenon and they include the primary approach and the secondary approach. While using the primary approach to collect data and other relevant information about a situation, the author normally embarks on using new information which has not been used before (Redman and Wilkinson 2006). This is to mean that the author is expected to carry out his own survey to collect whatever information that he thinks is appropriate in informing his analysis and conclusions. The primary methodology can make use of different tools namely: observations, surveys, questionnaire and simulations to collect data. This method is particularly preferred where new information about a problem is required. However, this method may not be appropriate where quick solutions about a problem are required. This is because it is real time consuming. If this method was to be applied in this context, then it will imply that employees, trade union leaders and employers were to be involved directly to give their view on the subject matter (Diversity 2002). However, the author of this report decided to use the secondary method to argue his case on conflict management between the trade unions and the employers as result of failure to address diversity at workplace. This method was deemed preferred by the author as it allowed for comparison of different data and case reports on the problem. In addition, the method is faster and can be more appropriated given the time that was available to work on this study. In this case therefore review of past study on the problem and inclusion of case analysis provided a basis for analysis and evaluation of this situation. Results Case: Xerox Company The Xerox Company is recognised worldwide as one of those companies that have a very strong focus on diversity at workplace. According to Fortune Magazine, the Xerox Company is position six with regard to workplace and diversity. Important to note, is that Xerox company is one of the most successful global companies despite having a workforce that entails people from sorts of live. The company has continued to receive numerous praises and awards from all quotas following its initiatives which have enabled it establish and build an all inclusive culture (Diversity Programs 2002). It’s argued that at the company employees reactions are very minimal and the role of the employee union is almost a forgotten thing as there are very minimal conflicts that exist between the employees and the employer. The company management recognises the relative importance of recognising the need to have a culture that understands and makes good use of the employees individually through a diverse thinking in order to create high performing oriented teams that work together towards a common goal. The company policy has been cited as one of the major achievement that has enabled the management achieve high level of performance. Diversity at Xerox Company is clearly described and anchored in the company’s Diversity at Xerox Article (2002). The article has articulated very well in ways in which diversity at workplace can be translated into a very important business resource. The Act in details advocates for the need to take into account the various interests, values and beliefs that exist among the workers. Further, the article explains the need to accept other people irrespective of their ages as long as they have rich global diverse background that enables them fit in a globally organised and operative company. The company strongly believes that success is founded on establishing a creative and well motivated staff. This is because employees can share very important ideas and opinions that can be used to enrich others (Diversity at Xerox 2002). The company is of the view that proper management of diversity could easily translate into an invaluable resource for the business. Citing the company’s view on human resource activities, it’s important also to mention that the company has gone step further to establish different programs that are used to educate and encourage diversity at workplace (Best Companies for Diversity 2002). For instance, the Cauca Groups at Xerox are diversity teams whose work is to advocate for openness, equal opportunities and inclusion of all individual members into the family of Xerox. These groups are also meant to offer advocacy, and self-development as well as communication by acting as a catalyst for positive change at workplace as an initiative to turn the overall performance of the business. The company also believes that taking into account diversity at workplace will provide an opportunity to be unique in their own way and that it’s easy to remain in their original lines of business. The Company’s Act on diversity also recognises the need to accept and recognise all differences. This is important in team building. It’s believed that this will spark a lot of creativity and vitality at workplace. The Xerox 2002 states clearly that the diversity should be aimed at making good of business sense by boosting productivity and thereby meeting the bottom-line. The employees’ view on the policy on diversity is that everybody is guaranteed that Xerox is the place to be where every expression is recognised and appreciated (Nohria and Lee 2008). This philosophy clearly demonstrates the way the human resource function behaves towards creating a diversified corporate culture. In general terms, conflict management is well anchored on the company policy on diversity which seeks to address issues that arise as a result of differences that exist among the employees. Discussion of results Diversity at workplace plays a very significant role in achieving team success. This is because it helps the HRM teams to understand ways in which people are different from others and how the uniqueness among the workers can be addressed to achieve high level of performance. Research has shown that team productivity and functionality greatly depends on how the HRM handles its employees and its policies and procedures (Diversity Works 2002). In other words the relationship that exists between the HRM and workplace diversity should not be assumed because of the enormous benefits that are associated with diversity awareness at workplace. The HRM is obligated to work on implementation of various initiatives that can be used to foster awareness among the team members with the overall objective of avoiding conflicts and enhancing the overall performance of the organisation (Legge 2001). If the human resource team can be able to identify the various diversities that exist among the team members, the management is one step further to being able in capitalizing the available diversities for the overall team success. In addition, it has been established that it’s through recognition of diversity that the HRM team can be able to identify the capabilities among the individuals which can be very critical in realising the team objectives. Finally, diversity awareness among the management team is very important as it allows for easy modification of the available organisational processes in order to make them more efficient based on the capabilities of individuals. This is also likely to promote synergy and cooperation among the team through effective communication and proper management of conflicts (Wood 1995). Conclusion and recommendations The relationship between HRM and Diversity Awareness is very important aspect of management in an organisational setting. This is because it seeks to address the origin of different conflicts that emerge between the employers and the employees and in some occasions among the employee themselves. Workplace diversity is founded on such individual differences as age, sex, race and socio-economical background as well as experience. The way in which the management handles these differences greatly determines the level of success that the business is to attain. Based on the analysis of the Xerox case, its persistent excellence in performance has been attributed to the company’s culture where every individual opinion is respected and taken into account. This has helped create a naturally motivating working environment. The enactment of Xerox 2002 has helped the company translate the different diversities into an important resource to the business. In general, the success in performance has been attributed to company’s advocacy of equity, fairness and respect for all people. This has helped create a working environment where individuals feel comfortable and less subjected to conflicts. As part, of recommendation, its important for organisation to take full advantage of diversity awareness at workplace to establish the different capabilities individuals have that can be used to contribute positively to business performance. Second, it’s also important for the organisations to take affirmative actions by enacting certain policies that will be used to address differences that exist among the team members so as to reduce the incidences conflicts among the various groups. Finally, effective communication is very critical in this case. This is because it allows for freedom of expression of opinions and ways in which different conflicts have to be solved. References Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P. R., Mills, D & Walton, R 2004, A Conceptual View of HRM. In Managing Human Assets, Free Press, New York. Best Companies for Diversity. viewed 19th April, 2012 from, http://www.fortune.com/lists/F500/500_bestminority.html Bratton, J., and Gold, J. 2003, Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 3rd edition, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan. Cook, M. 2004, Personnel Selection: Adding Value Through people, 4th edition, Chichester, Wiley. Diversity at Xerox. viewed 19th April, 2012 from http://www2.xerox.com/go/xrx/about_xerox/about_xerox_detail.jsp ‘Diversity- A Passage to the Future at Xerox’ 2002, viewed 19th April, 2012 from http://clinton3.nara.gov/initiatives/OneAmerica/Practices/pp_19980930.5708.html ‘Diversity Programs’ 2002, viewed 19th April, 2012 from http://www.advanticadine. com/Advantech\Devweb.nsf/Pages/Diversity+Programs.html ‘Diversity Works at Fannie Mae’ 2002, viewed 19th April, 2012 from http://www.fanniemae.com/global/pdf/careers/diversity/diversity.pdf Kathy M. & John M. 2001, Designing and aligning an HR system, Human Resource Management, 11(2), 57–72. 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Wood, S. 1995, ‘The four pillars of HRM: are they connected?’ Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 5, no.5, pp.49-59. Read More