Work Diversity - Race Discrimination in HBSC - Case Study Example

Introduction

Diversity management in the modern organisational context has become a major issue of focus drawing the attention of body of research seeking to explore some of the positive and negative implications of workplace diversity. For arguments supporting workplace diversity, the justification is that people working together are more poised to achieve greater success, and this is the fundamental principle under which organisations were established (Noon, 2007). As such, social scientists are provided substantive evidence confirming that organisations with heterogeneous teams have greater prospects for innovation since they harness the variety in competencies in the form of skills, work experiences, education, cultural orientation, perspectives (Nelson, 2014). However, despite the positive aspects of workplace diversity, it is no doubt that contemporary organisations are confronted with workplace diversity issues. Diversity issues in modern workplaces include discrimination, sexism, and stereotyping among others (Buckingham, 2005). For HBSC, a major diversity problem that confronts the organisation is race discrimination, where a section of the employees has reported to having been treated unfairly based on their race. Cassell (2009) defines discrimination as the unfair treatment of people based on the preconceived notion of whom the person is thought to be due to social and cultural background. Therefore, for this case, the focus of this discussion is to explore both race and gender discrimination in HSBC with a detailed outline of the best approach to account or address the issue.

Race Discrimination at HSBC

One of the workplace diversity issues confronting HSBC is race discrimination involving unfair treatment of a section of workers because they belong to a particular race. Cassell (2009) asserts that race to include such elements as nationality, citizenship, colour, ethnicity, and citizenship. Although race discrimination does not manifest directly in the organisation, the opportunities available for employees are suggesting otherwise because the executive management tends to be occupied by members of the minority races. On the other hand, the recruitment of the employees is discriminatory to the minority races since they constitute a small percentage of the total employees, a problem confronting most of the financial institutions. More so, the top management comprises only one race whereas those lower in the organisational hierarchy tend to from the minority races. In this regard, it can be argued that the executive management at the organisation has failed in providing training opportunities as well as giving the minority races chances for career advancement. Particularly, a major concern is that even with the stated qualifications, the members from the minority races cannot be granted the promotion they wish, and the positions are selectively allocated to employees of a superior race. Therefore, poor management of diversity in HBSC has resulted in serious race discrimination.

Nelson (2014) would describe the HSBC scenario as a case of unconscious bias, or stereotypes always held towards people because of their social group. Stereotypic view of the minorities in the firm has led to discrimination because it concerns the characteristics, traits, and values that have been accorded to members of a particular social group based on their religion, race and political affiliation. One of the sources of race discrimination in the organisation could be the misinformed learning from the cultural messages that the executives have heard of the minorities or what the media always portrayed about the group (Powell, 2011). As such, Beryl (2014) agrees that stereotypes affect the impressions and the affection that people have towards others and always manifests in the workplaces from the manner in which people are treated based on their race, sex, age, and gender and so on.

Employment Cycle at HBSC and implications on diversity

HBSC has a proper, if not, an effective employment cycle with the ideal criterion for planning, recruiting, and selecting employees. During the employment establishment phase, the organisation does a lot to ensure that job assessment exists during employment recruitment to identify the staffing needs (through job analysis) while a proper selection is done to make sure that the right candidate has been selected for the particular jobs. However, the employment phase that has led to race discrimination is the maintenance of the entire employment opportunity. According to Price (2011), the maintenance stage of the job cycle should involve such incentives as induction and training whereby employees are taught new skills, and includes establishing new training packages for the employees to develop new skills. Notably, the executive management seems to be selective or partisan in the provision of training opportunities because the executive positions are held by only a section of employees from majority race, thus discriminating on the minority races. As such, race discrimination presented by the employment cycle raises the question as to what extent HBSC is sensitivity towards workplace diversity. Effective diversity management recommends the executive management to show least favouritism in employee benefits, either monetary rewards or non-monetary rewards like training and promotion (nelson, 2014). In the case of HBSC’s employment cycle, there is an issue with diversity management when recruiting employees. In fact, the final stage of employment cycle – termination – seems to suggest a biased approach towards laying off employees because, with the current termination of contracts, minority races majorly fell victims.

Ways of resolving race discrimination in HBSC

One of the means of addressing workplace discrimination in HBSC is by first challenging the perception and attitude that the executive management has towards embracing racial diversity. For one, it will be imperative to enlighten the management on changing the approach to diversity management by emphasising the impact that diversity has on the shareholder value (Ozbilgin et al., 2016). Nonetheless, addressing a change in attitude will involve highlighting the importance of workplace diversity on the general stakeholders including employees, consumers, communities and the environment (Miller & Tucker, 2013). Besides, a better approach to addressing diversity in the case is by bringing into attention the implications of complying with necessary regulation that advocate workplace diversity while on equal measures, it will be imperative to notify the management to a have a globalized approach or perspective towards diversity or workplace management (Miller & Tucker, 2013). Nelson (2014) recommends that the best way to address workplace discrimination is paying close attention to critical mass, or rather, considering actions for removing possible bias in promotion processes. Finally, Buckingham (2005) would suggest that the organisation should strive at all costs to embrace differences with the executive management paying keen attention to the different needs of the individuals and not separate such them on racial lines.

Challenges faced when addressing race discrimination

In the financial sector, one of the challenges for addressing workplace diversity would be overcoming the negative image that has befallen the industry to which HBSC operates. Miller and Tucker (2013) refer to the recent Occupy Wall Street movement as a negative implication in convincing the executive management of HBSC to embrace workplace diversity, particularly including the minority races in the executive positions. Nonetheless, owing to the inherent challenges in the financial sector, a major impediment towards embracing diversity would be the lack of accountability in implementing diversity management programs and initiatives (Ely & Thomas, 2001).

How to address the challenges

One of the ways through which HBSC’s executive management can resolve the challenges is by consulting a wide array of available incentives for diversity management or diversity management frameworks. For instance, there exists the enterprise risk management as an integrated framework that if applied in the context of diversity management, can provide with the reasonable assurance that workplace diversity can lead to the achievement of the organisation’s objectives (Miller & Tucker, 2013). For instance, with such an approach the challenges can be handled by encouraging a culture where a significant number of minorities are included in the executive management positions at HBSC. The integrated framework can address the challenges by monitoring the internal environment to ensure that there is a greater compliance with diversity management objectives, proper communication takes place, monitoring is done, and objectives are set to deal with workplace diversity.

Conclusion

In summary, HBSC is confronted by the typical diversity management problems common with financial institutions. Although the company has recorded tremendous achievements in financial management, more is left to question as to what extent the executive management is committed to embracing workplace diversity. Moreover, a major issue with diversity in the company is the recruitment and promotional opportunities that tend to lean towards majority races because they occupy a larger percentage of the executive positions. Therefore, for HBSC, there is an inherent need to deal with race discrimination when promoting employees and providing opportunities for career development. Although there is a myriad of approaches to addressing the race discrimination issue in the company, such would be subject to such challenges including lack of accountability and the negative image of the financial sector. Despite the challenges, a proper framework exists to help HBSC manage race diversity, in particular with such incentives as enterprise risk management as an integrated framework outlining the objectives and the required level of monitoring to ensure that the implemented approach towards diversity management is a success.