The Role and Effect of Managing Workplace Diversity on Business Success - Research Proposal Example

Research proposal-Diversity Management Topic: The role and effect of managing workplace diversity on business success Many studies have been in existence concerning workplace diversity but most of them have left a gap concerning management and its significance to corporate culture. Diversity management has formed a substantial component of the success of many companies because they improve efficiency and productivity of the workers. However, not too many organizations embrace the move and the selected few that embrace it are compelled to do it (Dike 2013, p. 4). The forced situation results in a number of issues because of insufficient management skills in the control of the issue. There are, therefore, issues related to ethics, which makes managers find it difficult to exercise diversity management. Such a scenario results in an albatross around the necks of managers in such institutions. A number of managers encounter difficulties in determining the factors, which contribute to the exact leadership or effective diversity management tasks achievable for management in such scenarios. This research entails a review of relevant theoretical concepts that help in the determination of management concepts relevant for diversity management. Introduction The work presents a research proposal on the role and effect of managing workplace diversity on business success. The research will explore how institutions manage workplace diversity to enhance business success. The study is important because it will reveal the consequences of workplace diversity to the existence of any firm and determine how organizations deal with cross-cultural management associated with diversity. The research will attempt to answer the question of how the management of workplace diversity affects the performance of businesses. Because diversity covers concern a full range of human qualities and their attributes, the research will narrow down to management skills required. The work will describe the pros and cons of managing a diverse workforce. The study will cover five selected multinational companies in the UK and US to address the questions of the research. The research will utilize the most recent information concerning management and research methods to formulate the thesis of the paper. The research paper will also employ qualitative research methods to collect and analyze the required data from the five companies. The answers to the research questions will require practical data that will involve the use of interviews and surveys of particular companies under study. A key source of the data on the companies will be the internet because of the limitations of the geographies of the nations mentioned earlier. Research Question: Does effective management of workplace diversity affect the performance and success of a business? To answer the question, the research will aim to fulfill four objectives. In addition, it will involve discussion of the evolution of diversity in the workplace, and explain its importance. It will also examine the limitations that a company may face because of failure to ensure effective of workplace diversity management. The research will explore the tools required for workplace diversity management and study the views of selected companies concerning their choice and implementation of diversity at the workplace. Hypothesis of the Research Question The research will prove the following hypotheses Ho: There is not relationship between effective workplace diversity management and business success. H1: There is a relationship between effective workplace diversity management and business success. The Objectives of the Research Project The research will focus on the key objective to determine how the management of workplace diversity affects the performance of businesses. The answers to the question will be solutions to a number of institutional problems. For instance, the research will equip managers with sufficient knowledge concerning cross-cultural management. The help offered will help the managers to find the right balance between organizational culture and the objectives of their firms. The move is significant because multinational corporations have employees from diverse cultures and different geographical regions of the world. The research, therefore, will provide a framework for dealing with the diversity at the workplace in multinational organizations. Access to Data, Organizations, and Respondents It is germane to indicate that the facts expressed in the research findings will rely on information and facts extracted from credited online sources, relevant academic books, and journals, as well as interview feedbacks from respondents. For this case, some data will come from the institutional websites, libraries, and interviews. The researcher will request permission of access to relevant data from authorities and business organizations under study. The surveys and the interviews will require that the researcher utilize e-mails and other technologies to reach correspondents because of the difficulties in traveling. Literature Review and the Concepts Related To Diversity Management Diversity management is the process of directing, planning, organizing, and applying comprehensive attributes of management. The mentioned processes develop an organizational environment that allows all employees to contribute to the success of a company regardless of their backgrounds and origins. Diversity, in this case, relates to the differences and similarities that exist among the people that make the workforce (Ehimare & Ogaga-Oghene 2011, p. 3). As such, diversity management concerns three critical aspects. The first is that diversity relates to all employees without encompassing some ranges of differences but on the entire issue, that makes people different or similar. The issue broadens the scope of diversity beyond the religious and racial perspectives. The second issue is that the concept of diversity gives the differences and similarities among people. Therefore, the act of managing such people requires relevant skills that will ensure an integration and understanding of the two contrasts. As such, a description of diversity has four layers. They include personality, external dimensions, organizational dimensions, and internal dimensions. Personality describes the identity of an individual using a stable set of characteristics. There is a wide range of characteristics that relate to human beings. Some of them could relate to their attitudes while some could relate to their behavior and actions. The traits vary from person to person, which brings the differences among people. At the same time, some individuals share characteristics, which results in the similarities among them. External dimensions are those characteristics that people have considerable levels of control. Such factors may include habits, income, education, appearance, work experience, race, marital status, and the geographic location of individuals. On the other hand, internal dimensions are those features with a high influence concerning the expectations, attitudes, and perceptions of people towards others. The organizational dimensions are significant factors in the organization and not the people as individuals. Such factors include union affiliation, work field, unit or division as well as the status of management. Proposed Methodology of the Research A research is an executive investigation that aims to gain an additional piece of information to add to the present knowledge and understanding of a given discipline. Research could also be the creation of activities, which stimulate the creation of new information concerning a given theme. The information will be new because of the variation in the theories used in the finding of the interpretations of the topic. The process of this research will combine the study, synthesis, and analysis of data. The work will rely on data from both primary and secondary sources in its attempt to answer the research question. The study will use e-mail interviews and surveys as the primary sources of data from the five companies that have multicultural workforces. Secondary data for the study will come from the libraries and the internet (Bryman & Bell 2010, p. 33). For the interview and the samples, the researcher will develop a series of questions that will derive the correspondents into giving answers related to the objectives of the study. The questions will measure the perspectives of the correspondents concerning diversity management and its advantages and disadvantages to their organization. Interviews and surveys are the best alternatives because they give almost immediate answers and save on the time used in data collection. The methods also make a comparison of data from different sources easy. The comparison helps to minimize the errors that result from uncoordinated answers. The research could also use dissertations, but the latter method is very expensive and time wasting. Ethical Considerations for the Research The primary sources and secondary data sources call for ethical considerations for the research. In this case, the research shall stick to the ethical framework for research as given by the university. For instance, the research questions shall not involve sensitive issues that may provoke feelings of discomfort from the correspondents. Another consideration is that the researcher will seek the consent of all the concerned parties before proceeding with the process. Informed consent is important because it makes the research to fall under the legal framework and considers confidentiality of information (Dike 2013, p. 4). Research Plan The first activity of the research will be asking the permission of all the concerned parties, which shall include official communication through email. The second step will formulate the objectives of the study and establishing a hypothesis. The next step will structure the research interview questions and revelation of the outcomes of their usage. After such steps, the researcher will get in contact with the respondents and e-mail the questions for both the interview and the survey. The next step will analyze the secondary sources of data and comparing them with those from the primary ones. The comparison will help the researcher to determine the patterns and the validity of the answers raised from the primary sources. Bibliography Bryman, A & Bell, E 2010, Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press Dike, P 2013, The impact of workplace diversity on organizations, Retrieved April 2, 2015 from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/63581/Thesisxx.pdf?sequence=1 Ehimare, O. A & Ogaga-Oghene, J. O 2011, The impact of workforce diversity on organizational effectiveness: a study of a Nigerian bank, The University of Petroşani Economics, 93. Read More