Diversity in Work Place - Research Paper Example

 Diversity in Work Place Diversity is a vast and critical subject, which is being aggressively adopted by firms across the globe. As the organizations are becoming globally aware and people and businesses are moving across borders, it has become important for organizations to develop a strategic diversity plan, which can be related to employees from different nationalities, cultures, religions and color. Companies have to be sensitive to their human resources; they cannot develop human resource policies which discriminates the employees based on their history and background. This new phenomenon has made many big, medium and small organizations to change their culture and policies. Trade has diversified at a global level; all the organizations either work or export their products across the borders and are linked to the world of different cultures. In process of selecting two companies for the research paper we have selected Coca-Cola and Habib Bank Limited. Coca-Cola is the largest beverage company of the world in terms of manufacturing, marketing and distribution, began its operation in the year 1886. In the early years of the product development one of the challenges faced by the company was the packaging of the soft-drinks. The headquarters are located in Atlanta and has a work force of 30,000 people situated in 200 different countries. It is reported that 70% of the company sales volume and 80% of the profit is generated from regions outside of USA [Dem14]. Coca-Cola is not only present world-wide but has been awarded as the best drink by the consumers. they are the 6th most admired company acknowledged by Fortune 2014, are among the 50 most diverse company of the world, have 900 plants and have improved energy efficiency by 20% since 2004 [Wor14]. Habib Bank Limited is a Pakistan based bank, engaged in commercial, Islamic and operational activities. HBL is the first Pakistan commercial bank and started its operations in the year 1947 and has over 1900 branches nationwide. It operates in retail lending, deposit and banking services, corporate and investment banking, privatization and treasury market. Habib bank has it presence in 25 countries and each country is being centrally monitored for effective operations [Hab14]. The bank was privatized by Government of Pakistan in the year 2004 and 51% of the share is owned by economic segment of Agha Khan. It is rated as No. 1 bank of Pakistan and 582 bank of the world, HBL has a rating of AAA long term and A-1 for short term by JCR. The bank is largest in terms of branch network and the net income produced for the year 2014. The two companies are distinctive in their operations and have their presence in many countries which make them a good fit for the research paper. These companies have developed diversity plans to ensure the working and operations of offices outside their premises. The two companies have different histories, one has its roots in developed economy and other has its roots in developing economy, this makes the research more interesting to understand how the difference of the parent economic and culture affects the diversity plans made by the organization. In the research paper we would study four types of diversity strategies and how both countries have adopted them to the best of their abilities and resources. Work place diversity provides on ways to manage diversity by creating an environment that provides with values and ethics along with input of people from different backgrounds. The strategy for the organization is to represent different areas, advantages and disadvantages for employees; it is built on the principle of equality [Aus12]. The first type of diversity that will be discussed is gender diversity. The world has considered man as the bread earner and has always given preference to men over women. There are many organizations who consider their job description best suited for men such as armed forced, and women for a longer period of time have been neglected. It was after the late 1800 and early 1900 century that women started to make their own position and worked hard in making a respectable position in the society. Coca-Cola and Habib Bank Limited are both organizations which believe that women possess same skills as men and have policies of hiring ration. With Coca-Cola the ratio of male to female 50:50 whereas, Habib bank has a ratio of 60:40, the difference of ratio is due to the difference of locations. Coca-Cola is situation at a place which have taken aggressive measures to ensure that women gain the right amount of respect as compared to Habib Bank which belong to an area where the work on women rights is still progressing and fewer make an effort to earn education and gain jobs. The second type of diversity for the research paper is cultural diversity; this is the most critical and researched upon diversity factor. Culture present individual’s value and employees should be respected for them. Culture cannot be forced upon people and organizations need to develop a sense of sensitivity towards employees by developing ways to respect the ethical values of each region. Coca-Cola and Habib Bank are present in different countries; else for respecting the values of employees hired outside the country they also have cultural diversity within one country. These organizations have worked over the years to develop policies to ensure that they incorporate the cultural values of each society. One way to show their respect is to increase the ratio of employees being hired from different cultural background, and to design their holiday structure that could incorporate the historical events of each culture individually. Some of these events are Eid for Muslims, Christmas for Christians and Diwali for Hindus, human resource management of the organization can make policies that can incorporate space for all of the culture individually. Coca-Cola and Habib Bank respect and enjoy the fact that they are source of income for different cultural backgrounds. Both the organizations have adopted their policies to accommodate all individuals that are a part of distinctive cultures; these organizations have ensured that they don’t discriminate between the employees belonging to different cultures and societies. The third type of diversity is race and ethnicity, the race and ethnicity like culture comes under religion, but is different in terms of its meaning. Race represents the background of an individual, there can be two individual who belongs to the same culture but have different race, Pakistan is a Muslim orient state but people belong to different areas and each areas have different sections, the work place needs to incorporate a culture that does not differentiate people based on their background. Employees are not respected because they are richer, or have more land area, or have education from a better institution, all employees should be judged and hired based on their capabilities. Coca-Cola and Habib Bank are present is so many countries that race is not even considered as a factor of hiring individuals. People are hired based on their level of education and experience, and if all else are constant that the credibility of institution is taken into account to ensure that best human asset is selected for the organization. Organizations don’t make strategic plans to ensure that diversity based on race is managed; each individual is hired and rated for their work. The fourth diversity considered for the research paper is physical ability; there are many organizations that believe that their job description does not give room for people with physical disability. There are many people who are rejected based on some disability and these people are rejected before they are even given the opportunity to work. Organizations and human resource does not understand that people work with their mind and disable people can be a great asset to the organization if given the opportunity. Habib Bank and Coca-Cola does not judge people based on their disability but at the same time it has been observed that both the companies show a smaller rather unseen ratio of people working with certain disability. Diversity is a difficult concept and policies made by the organizations need to be refined and improved, the sudden global connectivity of the world has not given much time to companies to build and maintain diversity policies. Out of the four diversity aspect studied in the paper the first has been much incorporated by many large companies, where men and women work with same ratio and same job description, the second point has also been actively incorporated in the system, employees from different cultural groups are accepted and respected and are given the room to practice their own believes, the third point has also been incorporated by many organizations and employees are not discriminated on their family backgrounds, the culture can been seen in few organization but most of the larger companies have only hired people with abilities and capabilities of completing the task. However, the fourth aspect of diversity needs to be given much importance, and people with disability must be given more opportunity and responsibility and must be accepted or rejected based on his ability to complete the task and not on their disabilities. The paper has been a learning experience with respect to the type of diversity the world faces and how each region is dealing with their own organization policies and procedures to ensure that the output is not affected by discrimination factors. It is encouraging to know that organizations and companies accept and respect differentiating factors and have incorporated the same in their system to bring out the best outcomes. Bibliography Dem14: , (Vrontis, 2014), Wor14: , (Worldo, 2014), Hab14: , (Habib-Bank, 2014), Aus12: , (Australian-Gov, 2012), Read More