Managing a Global and Diverse Workforce - Essay Example

? MANAGING A GLOBAL AND DIVERSE WORKFORCE By Location Managing a Global and Diverse Workforce Introduction Inrecent years, human resource professionals across the globe have realized the benefits of applying diversity in managing a global workforce because of its potential of influencing organizational growth. Ideally, the global market has become relatively competitive in which organizations have had to take up management tools that are able to edge rival groups out of their way. The logic behind this is that organizations that seek to remain relevant in the global market have no option to apply the principles of diversity in all their aspects of operations. Organizations have realized the significance of diversity management as the focus has shifted from earning revenue to enhancing employee satisfaction. In essence, globalization is one of the key contributors to the establishment of workplace diversities making it essential for a human resource manager to build a culturally tolerant environment. The core practice of incorporating this management concept is ensuring that managers utilize all the tools and resources at their disposal in order for the process to be successful. With this, this essay will delve into the compliance-based model of enforcing workplace diversity practice used in the USA in relation to hiring and assigning employees. History of the compliance-based model in the US Initially, the concept of applying workplace diversity began through the introduction of affirmative action as a provision of the law in which human resource professionals had to give equal opportunities to job seekers (Kandola & Fullerton 2003, p. 4). As per the law, employers cannot use racial, ethnic affiliation, or gender as the basis to offering employment or as a tool for filling out the diversity gaps that may exist within an organization. The process began as a voluntary aspect in which those that desired to apply it could, but it later evolved to be a mandatory practice because of the increase in cases of substandard treatment by employers. In essence, for those that could not comply with the developed legal structures that aimed at enforcing equality at the workplace became subject able to legal penalties. By the mid twentieth century, the quest to achieve workplace diversity had begun in Europe and USA where those that sought employment opportunities in these regions could not experience discrimination (Ozbilgin 2004). The Civil Rights legislation of 1964 and the Directive 2000/78/EC are some of the laws developed in order to protect job seekers from discrimination. Both of these laws safeguard the employees against prejudicial treatment at the work place because of their religion, gender, sexual preference, personal experience and their ethnic background. Racism as a workplace issue For many years, racism has been a predominant workplace issue that has attracted civil lawsuits because human resource professionals have failed to eradicate out of their organizations. Kumra and Manfredi (2012, p. 101) suggest that the significant fraction of the population that has continued to experience workplace discrimination is the African American population. They argue that blacks experience ‘everyday racism’ at their places of work as compared to any other immigrant population hence making some companies to advocate for institutional racism. Britain is one of the super economies that have minimal regard for people from the black and the ethnic minority groups in relation to positions of power, education, and employment. Further, the percentage of the unemployed from the BME groups stands at 8.5% because the percentage managers from this community tend to be minimal. The implication of this is that the high percentage registered in the unemployed population is because of having fewer managers at the management levels that can ensure that there is diversity and equality in their places of work (Gold 2009, p. 56). However, this challenge takes from the fact that a significant number of those of the BME population do not get in the Russell Group of universities hence making them non-viable for leadership positions at globally competitive companies. However, this does not suggest that this part of the population does not get into an institution of higher learning because most of them do, but their outputs do not surpass those of the white population. Essentially, a majority of those that graduate with quality degree grades such as 2:1, are from the white population while students from other ethnic affiliations contend with the other degree grades. With this, it becomes relatively hard for job seekers from the BME communities to acquire high job rankings because of their affiliation to non-performance and education grades. As per a research by Acker (2006), the other challenge that people from the black and minority ethnic communities face is that women from this population divide are the only ones likely to acquire job placement positions in foreign as immigrants. However, women from this population may acquire job placements but their working conditions tend to be poor or face sexual harassment both in the public and in the private sectors of the economies (Berkowitz, 2010). The percentage of unemployed women from the BME population tends to be high as compared to that of white women hence illustrating that there is an inequality gap existing between races. Over the years, employers both in the public and in private sectors have come understand the challenges that face women from BME communities that has made them to consider the qualified ones to employment positions that suit them. The impact and consequences of racial discrimination at the work place Researchers have established that race is one of the dominant aspects that characterize labour divisions in a globally competitive job market. Many might not agree with this statement, but it is relatively true even if the racial aspects may remain hidden from public view and are legally challengeable in a court of law. In many cases, racial treatment tends to be a personal attribute, but some organizations might be in support of this vice especially when it comes to some of their skilled managers. With this, the issue of race has for a long time attracted less attention because the society believes that the job market has evolved to be accommodating to people from different ethnic or racial background, which is incorrect. As witnessed, immigration results from globalization, which in turn may force a community to assimilate and ape the practices of the community that they have joined (Gonzalez-Perez & Leonard 2013, p. 37). Assimilation tends to corrupt a person’s identity in which they may become and behave as per a particular culture, which may also influence racial discrimination at the work place. The implication of this is that people from the same ethnic background may be their own enemies as those that may hold high offices of management can treat people from their ethnic communities in the same way that whites would treat them. In essence, these people might have assimilated the practices by the whites to be part of their own culture simply because they grew differently or attended different schools from people from BME communities. However, assimilation may also be a positive attribute in that it can help people from the BME groups to adopt western practices that would improve on their quality of life and the ways of relating with other people. The base factor here is that the assimilation process requires that a minority group gets introduced to a major fraction of the population because of a number of factors such as war or the desire to improve their quality of life through seeking better employment options. As part of experiencing diversity in culture, the minority culture begins to experience different lifestyles in which they may opt to take them up or drop depending on how applicable they may be to their lives (Roscigno 2007, p. 89). Cultural diversity at the workplace With the advancements in technology and mixed aspects of globalization, most workplaces have evolved to become environments that accommodate people that have different race, sexuality, religion, and ethnic divides (Hubbard 2004, p. 315). With this, organizations and professionals have had to change the approach in order to make work places to be friendlier and influencing the achievement of organizational goals. This concept has resulted in the need to promote cultural diversity as a way of decreasing cultural prejudice within working environments. A majority of those that understand the need to have a culturally diverse workplace also abide by the United Nations declaration on human rights making these leaders to be competent at their duties (Barak & Michalle 2013, p. 16). According to analysts, the UN had the concern of the immigrants at heart while developing this universal charter that upholds the treatment of every individual irrespective of their nationality or race with absolute dignity. It would proper to say that this forms part of the compliance-based model in which those found to be in contravention of these provisions attracts a legal redress. The angles that cultural diversity may take are many meanings that it is the duty of every human resource professional to consider them in order to prevent the treatment of employees at substandard levels. On the contrary, racial discrimination may not be factor applied by the management of an organization, but it may also be an attitude or cultural behaviour displayed by white employees to others. One of the basic applications of cultural diversity in the workplace can be through allowing employees that are culturally diverse to express themselves freely in order for their working environment to be friendlier to them (Moran R, Harris & Moran S 2012, p. 216). In essence, communication is one of the key pillars to a successful organization in which the employees can be free to report on matters that appear oppressing to them or suggest on ways that an organization can be better. Other than that, an organization through its human resource arm of operations should ensure that they provide adequate training to members of staff equally with being biased on one side because of their race. Indeed, no race is supreme to the other races, meaning that training opportunities should be in tandem with an employee's capabilities and the addition that they give to an organization. Other than this, human resource managers should ensure that they motivate their staff members equally irrespective of their cultural diversities, which in turn tends to influence organizational commitment (Wilton 2010, p. 216). In essence, a job-satisfied work force is the most productive work force in terms or equal treatment and adequate compensation for the time that they spend working at the organization (Gomez-Mejia & Werner 2008, p. 3). The bottom-line here is that there should be equal treatment in that the whites should not get better pay as compared to employees from different cultural backgrounds working in the same line of work as this is likely to fuel animosity among employees. In essence, a human resource manager should be a catalyst for unity within an institution by being at the forefront of treating people with the utmost regard. This makes employees feel valued and that their efforts to the organization that they work for counts for something, which in turn leads them to work towards achieving the organizational goals. The other aspect that might serve as an encouragement towards cultural acceptance can be through the application of motivational systems that seek to appreciate employees for their work. In essence, a human resource manager should ensure that they introduce employee recognition schemes that seek to motivate employees to work harder. However, this may also influence organizational disunity in the event that a human resource manager only acknowledges one fraction of the cultures represented at an organization. Jauhari and Singh (2013) intimates employee motivation helps to influence employees to develop loyalty towards the organization that they work for, which in turn fosters an increase of profit margins for an organization. According to Wrench (2005), human resource professionals should view cultural diversity as a positive trait rather than a negative one as this has a high likelihood of influencing innovation. In essence, people have different talents in which when explored can help an organization to be ahead of their competitors intimating that there is strength in cultural diversity (Briscoe, Schuler & Tarique 2012, p. 201). As much as the world seems to be applying the compliance-based model for influencing accommodating work place environments, human resource managers should also adopt this practice voluntarily in order for their leadership to be effective. In the end, race as a cultural diversity issue should be the basis to which a human resource professional should consider a person for employment because it is illegal. Therefore, people from all races should be able to access employment options because of their merit and academic qualifications and not because of their ethnic background making cultural diversity to integrate positive leadership. Conclusions The essay has depicted the several elements that hinder the desired approaches to proper management of a diverse cultural workforce as dependent on the issues of bias and prejudice. Through surveys, it is evident that the history of compliance-based model in the US depicts the country as one lagging behind in establishing the values of diversity. Further, Racism as a workplace issue has served as a major deterrence to equated diversity in the workplace. However, the study highlights on the impact and consequences of racial discrimination at the work place, and it is knowledgeable that the culture may cease with time if the current society continually grows positive attitudes in viewing individuals in accordance to their qualifications. Therefore, it is important for managers in multinational corporations to acknowledge the availability of diverse cultures in the organizations in order to deliver equated and unbiased managerial duties to their workforce. Bibliography Acker, G. 2006, Inequality Regimes – Gender, Class and Race in Organisations, Gender and Society, 20,(4), 441 – 464. Barak, M, Michalle,E 2013, Managing Diversity: Towards a Globally Inclusive Workplace. London, Sage. Berkowitz, E 2010, Inventing Equal Opportunity (review), Journal of Social History, 44 (1), 254-256. Briscoe, D, Schuler, R & Tarique, I 2012, International Human Resource Management 4th edn. London: Routledge. Gold, D L 2009, Law & economics: toward social justice. Bingley, UK, JAI Press. Gomez-Mejia, LR & Werner, S (eds) 2008, Global compensation foundations and perspectives. Abingdon, Routledge. Hubbard, EE 2004, The Diversity Scorecard. Burlington MA and Oxford, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. 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