Challenge of Diversity - Essay Example

? Challenge of Diversity Currently, the world has been experiencing increased levels of globalization as a result of liberalization of markets, removal of tariffs and efficient flow of information from one part of the world to the other. As a result, multinational companies have opened up different companies in different parts of the world and regions in order to satisfy the increasing demand for goods and products. In order to satisfy the varying demands of the customer and also to maintain a positive reputation and image, different companies have employed employees from different parts of the world who are from different races, have different ideas, ideologies and principles. Many companies have struggled to unite different employees who have different cultural background and ideologies an aspect that has made some of them to collapse. Nevertheless, Walt Disney Company is one of the companies that have been able to deal with cultural diversity an aspect that has been reflected in the overall returns of the company. This topic will therefore, set the way forward for other companies that are struggling with cultural issues (Esty, Griffin & Hirsch, 1995). Reason why culture has been a challenge One of the main reasons that have made culture a major problem to many companies is that some organization leaders favour some employees based on race, gender and status. This has created divisions in the organizations an aspect that has made it hard for the organization to prosper. In addition, leaders of organizations do not base their appointment, demotion or other organizations activity on performance appraisal and instead they base them on individual’s culture (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). Managers lack the skills to manage diversity in the organization. In many instances, managers fail to bring the employees together in order to accomplish a specific goal. Lack of skills therefore makes it hard for the managers to value differences in the organization, combat discrimination. Lack of skills to deal with diverse cultures in the organization therefore, increases cases of prejudices and discrimination. Some of the individual characters of the managers that undermine diversity include negative attitude towards diversity. This topic will therefore, analyze the skills that organizations need to equip their managers with in order to enable them deal with diversity (Conference Board of Canada, 2011). Organizations have been assuming that diversity have little to do with the overall profits of the organization. Respecting diversity in the organization creates team work an aspect that contributes directly to the success of the organization. In order to achieve this, managers need to have open doors for all employees irrespective of their gender, race or even religion (International Labour Office, 2008). Advantages of diversity to the organization One of the main advantages that have been noted in Walt Disney Company is consistent performance due to reduced conflicts emanating from diversity. The company has been able to achieve this through listening to all opinion irrespective of people or an individual employee airing them. As a result, there has been continuous coordination of employees in the organization an aspect that has been replicated in the organization’s performance (Clarke & Chen, 2007). In addition to this, the organization has been able to identify the loopholes that might bring conflicts in the organization. Some of the loopholes include discrimination and prejudice. These two aspects occur; employees feel unwanted in the organization an aspect that reduces their morale to work hard (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). Second advantage of diversity is improved reputation in the organization. In Walt Disney Company, customer feel represented an aspect that creates loyalty towards services being offered. In addition, diversity increases ideas as people from diverse regions have different ways of conducting activities an aspect that improves efficiency and overall profits. Also, diversity improves service delivery as customers are able to be served by employees who they share the same language therefore, becoming easier for them to communicate. Diversity enables the company to deal with different challenges that face the organization. This is because people in the organization have diverse skills to solve any challenge that may face the organization. In addition, diversity can enable the company open different branches in various parts as it is able to deal with diverse needs of the customers. How Walt Disney Company is evading the challenge of diversity Walt Company ensures that it respects diversity from advertisement of the vacancy, to treatment of employees in the organization. During advertising the position in the company, the company ensures that the advert is not discriminative. This gives the applicants a hope that the company is serious on any issue concerning discrimination and prejudice (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). The company has rules and measures to be taken in case one discriminates an employee in the organization. This move has played a great role putting in mind that no one is spared irrespective of his/her position in the organization. Managers are also keen in dealing with cases that are suspected to spark off any form of discrimination in the organization. In order to this action to be successful, the organization has emphasized a lot on communication. This is through open office policy where every member of the organization is free to report any case of prejudice or discrimination to any office (Schlegelmilch, 1998). For many decades, women have been discriminated against in many organizations. In Walt company women has been given the same priorities and powers like men an aspect that has improved diversity in the organization. Intensive training has therefore been undertaken to enlighten the employees on the need to respect other employee’s diverse opinions and origin in order for them to live in harmony (Maxwell, Maxwell & Maxwell, 2001). Walt Company has been able to face the challenge of diversity through being committed in making women and women small business enterprises a significant part of outsourcing and even procuring activities. The company has sought minority and even women owned enterprises for inclusion in bidding processes. This has increased its competitiveness as this is being undertaken as a corporate social responsibility act by the company an aspect that has driven the customer closer to the business (Avila, 2004). The company has developed a program that incorporates minority and women owned businesses. This has been made possible by fostering of a companywide atmosphere which supports and value diversity in the supply base. The program follows different procedures in order to be effective. Some of these include outreach in order to improve transparency and openness when dealing with company issues especially recruitments (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). Walt Company has unified the organization to make it more of a community. Many organizations divide different departments which are used as basis of discrimination and prejudice. This is not the case with Walt Company which despite having different department issues of diversity are handled with a lot of care and punishment of any form of discrimination and prejudice applies to all employees irrespective of their ranks. In other organization, top management is immune to punishment an aspect that pulls down the spirit of diversity (Kornblum & Smith, 2011). The company has been able to spread a culture of team work. Different teams that are set in the organization include people from difference diverse group in order to diversify ideas and opinions. This has been important in innovation and increasing the knot of togetherness in the organization (Budd & Kirsch, 2005). The company has been able to develop and implement equal opportunity employment policies. These policies has been able to establish a meritorious hiring practice ie age, race, gender and minority neutral. Many organizations have been assuming these important aspects which form the basis for diversity. The company also has a committee that helps in implementing the policies and come up with different, new ideas on how to attract more diversity in the company. The committee has been mandated with making the jobs in the company more compelling to both job hunters and current employees an aspect that attract candidates from diverse pool. This is made possible by ensuring that job ads are culturally sensitive. In addition, the company is able to recognize and accommodate cultural and religious holidays an aspect that makes the organization to be diversity friendly (The Walt Disney Company, 2012). One of the major theories that can be used to understand diversity is cognitive theory. This should be argued in terms of the ability of a group to put information together, process it and reach conclusion without focusing on the heterogeneity of the group involved. A heterogeneous group is therefore more realistic, complex and has symbolic effects which are easily identifiable. This plays a great role in convincing all members that they have equal opportunities. The theory tries to explain that poor diversity in the organization is a mental issue especially with the top management who perceive some people from a specific gender, race and tribe to be minor in comparison with other. This is because these people might be able to perform better than those from majority groups (Finkbeiner, 2011). Another theory that would be useful in explaining the challenges of diversity that are facing the organizations is theory of social construction. The theory indicates that individual constructs the social differences based on perception rather than facts. As a result, organizations have been able to hold the opinions of different employees as a result of their cultural background an aspect that has resulted to failure to diversify the workforce (Plunkett, 2013). My view on this topic I believe every company should uphold diversity. Diversity in the workplace has been the major pillar to the success of many multinational companies that are aiming at investing overseas. For many decades the minority groups have been regarded as worthless in the organization but with the current levels of globalization, the groups have become one of the major determinants of the organization’s success. The organizations need to set up different measures that will ensure that diversity is upheld and respected from the recruitment process to other activities in the organization. In my view, integrating diversity can be effective if organizations form teams or even department with employees who hold diverse background. Effective training on the need to respect each other culture, religion, gender and race is one of the effective tools in incorporating diversity in the organization. In many cases, culture acts as the major hindrance towards incorporating diversity in the organization. As a result, effective training would helps in instilling a sense of respecting diversity. I believe putting up measurements, metrics and scorecards is another major act of improving diversity in the organization. However, one cannot be able to develop metrics without having the data. By use of different programs, companies can be able to measure diversity either internally through supplier programs, minority contracting processes, hiring and promotion processes. Other metrics which can be used to come up with accurate data on diversity include membership populations, education opportunities and even productivity measurements. References Avila, E. 2004. Popular culture in the age of white flight: Fear and fantasy in suburban Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press. Budd, M., & Kirsch, M. H. 2005. Rethinking Disney: Private control, public dimensions. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. Clarke, A., & Chen, W. 2007. International hospitality management: Concepts and cases. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. Conference Board of Canada. 2011. Workplace Diversity and Inclusiveness Forum: Translating Diversity into Business Advantage. Ottawa: Conference Board of Canada. Esty, K. C., Griffin, R., & Hirsch, M. S. 1995. Workplace diversity. Holbrook, Mass: Adams Publ. Finkbeiner, M. 2011. In Towards life cycle sustainability management. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. International Labour Office. 2008. Ageing : training package on ageing: Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Geneva: ILO. Kornblum, W., & Smith, C. D. 2011. Sociology in a changing world. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Maxwell, J. C., Maxwell, J. C., & Maxwell, J. C. 2001. Team. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson. Plunkett, W. R. (2013). Management: Meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Mason, OH. Schlegelmilch, B. B. 1998. Marketing ethics: An international perspective. London: International Thomson Business Press. The Walt Disney Company 2012. Supplier Diversity and Sustainment | The Walt Disney Company. Home | The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved January 10, 2013, from http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-business-services/diversity-sustainability Read More