The Workplace Diversity of MNCs - Research Paper Example

The Workplace Diversity of MNCs In this report I have discussed about the workplace diversity of MNCs (Multi National Companies) which will help you to teach your class in coming weeks. In this report I have heavily discussed on the various types of diversities in MNCs (Multi National Companies) including expatriate, repatriate. I have discussed the problems first then I discussed the respective solutions with example that can solve work place diversity problems easily. These solutions are best suitable for this problem to discuss in your class for students. And it will inform the students about work place diversity thoroughly. As from Catherwood Library (2010) “Workplace diversity is a people issue, focused on the differences and similarities that people bring to an organization. It is usually defined broadly to include dimensions beyond those specified legally in equal opportunity and affirmative action non-discrimination statutes. Diversity is often interpreted to include dimensions which influence the identities and perspectives that people bring, such as profession, education, parental status and geographic location”. Problem: Expatriate Recently most of the organizations who are working in different countries want to keep a good amount of diversity in the organization. That is the reason they employ people from different countries with different cultural background, language, religion etc. The organization has to deal with people and it’s very common that where there are individuals coming from diverse backgrounds, there are high chances that conflicts can arise at any time. The issue that women employees are lesser in number at the organization is also a diversity problem faces by many organizations. Because if there are no equal number of gender then biasness towards better number of gender is going to be happen and small least number of gender will be suppressed by greater number and they will not feel comfortable working there. That is also in general not good for the organization. (Mor Barak, 2010, p.4) Diversity in the workplace mainly encircles people from diverse cultural backgrounds, language, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief and other values. Diversity is also reflected when people belong to variety of educational fields, work experiences, personality, socio-economic context, marital status etc. (Vissa, 2013) For instance, often in the European work culture, people address their seniors by their names without adding any “Sir” at the end of the name and this practice is regarded as friendly and warm by the people of Europe however the person belonging to Asian culture would find it insulting if his junior addresses him by name. Language also creates a major diversity factor, as it is considered to be the primary tool for communication. Most of the organization lack of proper number of and quality human resource staff to handle these issues. These are the problems regarding expatriate currently facing by most of the MNCs (Multi National Companies). Solution: Using diversity in positive manner As we can see that the organization has introduced several policies supporting the diversity within the workplace therefore it is must for them to maintain a conflict resolution system. The organization should create an environment of tolerance and understanding in the team. They should also encourage the employees to adopt this mindset, to challenge their belief system and to be open-minded enough to hear each of the members’ view. It will help members realize that there isn’t only one way of thinking. The managers need to accept that they can’t make everyone think and act like they do (Esty, 1995, pp 12-14). They need to be attentive to verbal and nonverbal cues that might course tension. Managers should be aware of different ethnic group people and their cultural differences and get people in team to understand different cultures in order to make the team run well without struggles the diversity in the workplace involves accepting the individual differences and utilizing the diversities in a positive manner for managing the workplace. As we have discussed in the earlier sections that diversity in the workplace need to be handled with care and should be sustained with the introduction of proper human resource management system and conflict resolution system. We have seen that the organization already practices so many different approaches to introduce and sustain diversity within its functioning, but it has not mentioned anything about employee grievance resolving cell or employee engagement structure. However the introduction of the same would offer all the employees some space to discuss their issues and get guidance regarding those. For instance, when a female employee get harassed or when an aged employee becomes the subject of mockery, they can report the issue to the concerned HR department. Moreover people belonging to diverse cultures, would feel comfortable while practicing their own culture as well as while experiencing the diversities across the other religions. (Catherwood Library, 2010) Also the organization lacks proper human resource staffs that will be looking after the employee grievance system, address their personal and professional issues, focus on the employee engagement aspects, and must ensure that the concept of equal treatment of employees must not make the more talented individuals feel de-motivated. The issue that women employees are lesser in number at the organization should also be addressed by evaluating the reasons behind such behavior of the firm. As by Vissa (2013) “The evidence shows that diversity works, that if your team includes people from a variety of backgrounds -- in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social and class background, etc. -- you get better results. A scholarly review published over 20 years ago by the Academy of Management noted, "Organizations' ability to attract, retain and motivate people from diverse cultural backgrounds may lead to competitive advantages in cost structures, and through maintaining the highest quality human resources." Diversity training program Diversity in workforce can be often regarded as a positive force paving the way for the efficient team functioning. Diversity gives rise to variety of ideas, innovation and creativity, thus resulting in enhanced team performance. Thus, it is evident that a diverse team includes people with different skills and competencies and together they form a creative unit with lots of new and innovative thoughts. At the same time it can’t be denied that a diverse team includes people from different backgrounds and mindsets, which create differences among the members of the team. Therefore for a manager it’s necessary to organize, manage and lead the diverse team and motivate the team members to work towards achieving a common objective. As per Esty (1995) “In our diversity training programs, we use both The Tale of O and A Class Divided to stimulate awareness of the dynamics of diversity. Following the video, we ask participants to reflect on a time when they have felt like an O in the workplace or to describe to their table a time when they felt like an Out. We then ask them to tell the story about that time and, in particular, to remember what they felt when they were an O or an Out and how they behaved.” (p.5) Establishing Criteria for Selecting Sources 1. Relevance to current business environment- Nowadays it has become a common practice for the multinational companies to assign important tasks to their high level employees and send them to foreign countries for a certain period of time. This process is known as Expatriation. In this process the employees are provided with necessary training which helps them to adapt with the cultural differences in the foreign country so that the chances of getting a cultural shock is reduced. Companies spend huge amounts for the expatriation process. When the assignments abroad are completed successfully then the repatriation process starts. 2. Advantages of Diversity in the workforce: Expatriation helps the employee to acquire international knowledge. The organizations expect the expats to apply their international experience in the home country upon their return. However the process of repatriation goes through more difficulties than expatriation, which involve problems in adjusting with the ambience of the home country after getting used to with the overseas environment. The repatriation process proves to be more traumatic than expatriation. 3. Disadvantages of Diversity in workforce: Different people with different culture and point of views could be confused, threatened or even annoyed by each other in the team, from views and background different from their own. It could create disagreements and disturbed political atmosphere that might slow down project advancements. For example, “Pointing with one finger is considered to be rude in some cultures and Asians typically use their entire hand to point to something.” And In Western culture, eye contact means you’re attentive and honest; yet for a Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, or Native American, eye contact is thought to be disrespectful or rude. 4. Relation to students/program- Students should have a clear view of current industries culture and prospective otherwise in couple of years when they going to enter into the Multi Nationals and go to different countries or regions and will be working with different ethnic group peoples, they will face the same kind of problems or misunderstanding which I have discussed here. If they have the clear view point of this problems and idea about respective methods to solve it they can easily make up with the situation easily by their own. 4. Reliability/accuracy- All the sources presented in this discussion are authentic and reliable and been retrieved from trustworthy sources. ‘Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace’ this is a very reputed book written by M.E Mor Barak in 2010 and published by SAGE Publication house. Another note is from Catherwood Library of Cornell University ILR School on Workplace Diversity which was published in 2010 is also quite relevant and ‘Don't Be Afraid of Diversity’ written by Preeti Vissa from Huffington Post, 2013 is also relevant to our discussion. Conclusions and Recommendations: Keeping in line with the diversity policy of the organization, now we can form a diversity training program. The diversity training program would involve all the people of the organization, including the stakeholders like the customers and the dealers. All these people will be provided with a kind of vestibule training where everyone would get a scope to get introduced with the other. Further these people would be assigned to different groups and offered with critical situations where they would be asked to solve the case as a team. This method would be fun and interesting; at the same time it would make people work in groups. This type of group work would give the individuals a platform to get mixed-up with the people of different religion, culture and language. Moreover the mutual exchange of thoughts would bring up new ideas and perceptions that would be beneficial for both the society and the organization. In this context we can also say that role playing, storytelling, quiz conduction etc. would prove to be good equipments for enhancing the familiarity with the diversity of the organization. According to Mor Barak (2010) “The focus on diversity in global business today is quite different from civil rights legislation and from affirmative action programs. It is n longer only a matter of righting past wrongs or of trying achieve equality of opportunity by addressing underrepresentation of specific groups. Diversity efforts are focused on managing and engaging the company’s heterogeneous workforce in ways that give it a competitive advantage.” (p.13) The gender discrimination issue like involvement of more male employees should also be dealt with efficiently. Thus the training needs analysis would evaluate what are the key skills of the employees and what more are required to make them suitable for the diverse work culture of the organization. Some monthly occasions like picnics or parties would also be helpful to make the people of diverse group to get accustomed with others. The entire office can include several things related to particular countries and it can also include several photographs of various employees at their homeland, to be shared on the notice board of the office. Additionally the training program might also include teaching several languages and that too by the means of the employees. It would make each employee’s mother tongue to be familiar with the entire office and in this way people would get to know each other’s diverse backgrounds. The new policy of diversity should include the following contexts- a) Recruiting a diverse workforce- The recruitment of a diverse workforce can be best done by posting the jobs on the web and by keeping the provision of conducting telephonic interview or online interviews. b) Preventing harassment and bullying- The grievance addressing system discussed earlier could help the employees to get protection from various kinds of harassment and bullying. c) Solving the issues related to harassment/discrimination etc. - An efficient human resource management could prove to be efficient to look after these issues. Therefore, the management should constantly upgrade their training methods and should make the employees accept each other’s differences. Work cited Mor Barak, M.E. (2010). Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. USA: SAGE Publication. Esty, K.C. (1995). Workplace Diversity. Canada: Adams Media. Catherwood Library. (2010). Workplace Diversity. Cornell University ILR School. Retrieved from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/research/subjectguides/workplacediversity.html Vissa, P. (2013). Don't Be Afraid of Diversity. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/preeti-vissa/dont-be-afraid-of-diversi_b_4210410.html Read More