Recruitment, Development and Retention of Diversified Employees - Term Paper Example

Women in Boardroom Introduction Women in the past have occasionally been denied top leadership positions, leading them to service oriented jobs. Gender equality has been a major challenge since the colonial period but the perception is gradually changing with time. It has been proven women’s intelligence and spirit, brings about democracy and prosperity in all sectors of the life. Leadership diversity is crucial in realization of economic goals and implementation of justice in the society. Contextualization There are a number of barriers that lead to leadership diversities in organizations today. These include the perception distortions that exist within the workplace and the community as whole. Some of the perceptual distortions include stereotyping, self fulfilled prophecies, halo-effect, projection and the perceptual defense. Most of these problems arise due to selectivity that exists within the perceptual process. Stereotyping and self fulfilled prophecies are the biggest challenges that decay the majority of the societies (Mullins, 2008).  Stereotyping is the hypothetical judgment of people whether negatively or positively based on generalization from some perceived similarities. This perception arises based on an expected characteristic from that person rather than the actual recognition of the person. Stereotyping occasionally simplifies the perception process by judging people and the general outlook of the world by ignoring the complexity of the stimuli. A person is judged according to the group which he or she belongs to. Prejudgments are usually done while ignoring the accuracy or deviation of the actual subject (Mullins, 2008).  Self fulfilled prophecy also termed as Pygmalion effect; in essence means trying to valid a perception. Many people are often struggling to confirm a theory that they have invented. The people’s beliefs and expectations often influence their attitudes and behavior in a move to prove that their beliefs are actually true. Managers’ expectations organizations have a strong impact on the employees. Therefore, an organizational culture can influence or hinder the development of its employees (Mullins, 2008).  Role of National and Organizational Culture in Influencing Development The organization plays a big role in fostering personal development of employees especially women. The organization’s beliefs and structure can highly determine the outcome of the employees. One of the factors that can change the employee’s personal development is the organizational culture. A negative organizational climate will hinder the development of women. If an organization frequently encourages their male counterparts to take educational studies to further their promotions while ignoring women, the women will lose their interest and hence kill the development morale (Chin, 2007).  The control systems can also affect women’s decision either positively or negatively. The control systems play a major role in monitoring the operations of the company. If the organization frequently monitors the quality of work frequently performed by the genders within the workplace, the organization can then take corrective measures. The organization can seek to employ more women due to improved quality work or less disputes among them, hence, leading to competition and pride among them. The organization can also stimulate their attitudes through role plays where the gender roles are interchanged in order to measure variations in performance. The implementation of leadership among the women can imply value that the organization has on the women (Catalyst, 2007). An organization which portrays women as services providers or supporting staff demoralizes their pursuit for career advancement. An organization which gives men prestigious leadership positions while the women subordinate roles or service providing jobs will hinder their motivation and quality of their work. Most women are judged by their attitudes and character, giving the perceiver a wrong perception about them and a false conclusion for that matter. In that case, the women will shun from seeking higher posts and eventually look for greener pastures where they would at least be appreciated for their efforts as well as room for advancements (Martin, 2011).  The company’s routines and rituals can also impact differently on the employees. That is, the company’s board reports, meetings can depict a lot about the company’s reputation. The composition of the board meetings and agenda of the meetings can have an effect on the employees. An organization which rewards the performance of employees especially the women can influence their productivity level. Organizations which have intrinsic and non intrinsic rewarding criteria, can determine the performance of the organization as a whole. Through competitive attitudes and job satisfaction, women can then have the courage to seek senior positions (Catalyst, 2007). Advantages and Disadvantages of Women in Top Positions There is the hypothetical belief that women have six senses which symbolically implies they are much ahead of men hypothetically speaking. Women possess transformational and transactional qualities that are different from their male colleagues. Women input a lot in every decision no matter how small as compared to men. Therefore women are critical thinkers. Women take a lot of effort in formation and implementation of ideas in order to achieve perfection. Women leaders have the ability to cultivate respect to their workers through pride that is achieved from interactions and success achieved in the company (Chin, 2007).  Women leaders are better communicators. The leaders know how to bring out the companies values, short and long term objectives through the formation of precise and achievable goals. The women are inspirational motivators such that, they are highly optimistic on their decisions and passionate on their future endeavors. Female leaders are better communicators. The leaders have a unique and personal way of solving disputes and better innovators of preventing future problems. Female leaders necessitate mentorship and development welfares of their staff. Women transactional qualities include rewarding of satisfactory performances and the effective implementation of performance appraisal in times of underperformance. They also have the power to pin-point problems at their initial stage before it is too late (Chin, 2007).  However, the female leaders also have some disadvantages in their leadership style. It has been observed that some female leaders are usually too bossy in their management style. They tend to be too strict to their employees and sometimes lead to strikes. Some female leaders also have the habit of bringing personal issues within the workplace which hinders employees’ performance (Mullins, 2008).  Analysis There are a number of successful women leaders in the world. A notable example is Mrs Katie Rae a managing director at Tech Stars Boston and a co founder of Project 11. In 2013, she was named as one of the most creative persons in 2013. She points out that women should be courageous in whatever they intend to pursue, and listen to their colleagues whether it is a positive or negative comment and use it to their advantage. Her greatest asset was listening and learning abilities from others (Giang, 2014). Another example is Rachel Sklar who is the founder of Change the ratio and the Li.st who believes leadership is not just inborn, but learned (Giles, 2015). Women leaders have also graced management awards for example Alison Cryer who is a managing director at Copthorne Hotel. She got an award at Acorn Awards after developing a management strategic idea for small hotels (Corbis, 2015).In the prestigious and most competitive airline in the world Virgin Airlines, Amanda Wills is a chairlady at Virgin Holidays who joined the airline when it was in turmoil. In less than a year she had developed a brand new image, products and structures. Currently, the Virgin Holidays is the number one tour operator in Florida and Caribbean. From the examples, it can be noted that what men can do, the women can also do it better (Sherwin, 2014). Recruitment, Development and Retention of Diversified Employees An organization can target specific demographic groups that are not fully represented in the workforce. The organization can begin by placement of advertisements in specific areas like the universities and colleges targeting the underrepresented classes of individuals. The organization can also partner with women associations for example the Society for Women Engineers which can stimulate the representation of female engineers in the engineering industry. Research indicates that the Associations have played a big role for companies that have vowed to promote women diversities in their management structures. The women should be hired, developed and later promoted or retained in order to reach top positions (Mullins, 2008).  Groups’ diversity In today’s organizations, most of the extensive jobs are done in groups. When the groups work together, they should first develop a common ground of completing the extensive work through proper communications. The composition of these groups is vital because it determines the effectiveness of the group. The groups with different expertise, education and genders is significantly effective than the one made of a single dominant group. It is proven that transformational leaders manage team diversity for increased high level goals and team work between members in the organization (Mullins, 2008).  Programs Diversity Apart from the use of recruitment in order to maximize diversity, comprehensive programs promote the achievement of diversity and other benefits. The programs teach the managers on the legal implications regarding equal employment opportunities and the fair treatment of women in the workplace. Secondly, it also teaches managers on how the composition of different genders can be able serve the diverse customers that enter the business premises. The third importance is that it fosters personal advancement among the employees and illuminates on how different perceptions can be valuable in improving the performance of everyone (Mullins, 2008).  Conclusion Women have a personal touch on their decisions and activities that they adjudicate in their daily endeavors. They value perfection rather than average performance; which in turn can be of value to any prudent organization. Organizations should embrace leadership diversities in their top management positions, in order to realize diversified opinions and economic benefits that come with it. Reference List Giang, V. (2014). 10 Women In Leadership Share Their Secrets To Success. Retreived on 2nd mar 2015 from: http://www.fastcompany.com/3031922/strong-female-lead/10-women-in-leadership-share-their-secrets-to-success Giles, F. (2015).Women 1st Top 100 Club. Retreived on 2nd mar 2015 from: http://www.women1st.co.uk/top-100 Corbis, B. (2015).The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century. Retreived on 2nd mar 2015 from: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2029774,00.html Sherwin, B. (2014). Why Women Are More Effective Leaders Than Men. Retreived on 2nd mar 2015 from: http://www.businessinsider.com/study-women-are-better-leaders-2014-1 Mullins, L. J. (2008). Essentials of organisational behaviour. Harlow, England, Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Chin, J. L. (2007). Women and leadership transforming visions and diverse voices. Malden, MA, Blackwell Pub. Catalyst, Inc. (2007). The double-bind dilemma for women in leadership: damned if you do, doomed if you dont. New York, NY, Catalyst. Martin, J. L. (2011). Women as leaders in education succeeding despite inequity, discrimination, and other challenges. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger. Read More