The Significance of Understanding Human Resource Management - Essay Example

The Significance of Understanding Human Resource Management from a Diverse or Gendered Perspective The Significance of Understanding Human Resource Management from a Diverse or Gendered Perspective Introduction Workplace diversity in human resource management acknowledges the common reality that people are inherently different in a number of ways ranging from gender, disability, sexual orientation age, social status, marital status, culture, ethnicity and culture (Mulholland and Turnock 2012). While gender inequality in the workplace is one of the most common and oldest diversity issues in the world of human resource today, other diversity such as ethnicity and religion are noted as being very common divisive issues in regions of the Middle East and India. In the United Kingdom and the United States, one of the most common diversity issues is perceived to be racial inequality with both countries being seen to have long histories of systematic discrimination against some of their ethnic minorities and blacks; against this background it can be found that it is important for managers and other human resource personnel to understand human resource management from gendered or diversity perspectives to ensure success in the modern day business environment. Human Resource Management and Diversity in the Workplace Diverse workplaces generally tend to comprise of a wide multitude of understandings, values, beliefs and different ways of viewing unique information and viewing the world. The current rapid rate of globalization and internationalization has been noted as significantly enhancing workforce diversities across the world. Nowadays, human resource management is having to develop innovative and effective methods to be used in handling the increasingly multicultural, cross-cultural and gender sensitive workforces that are common in not only western economies but also in different corporations around the world. This importance of workplace diversity has catapulted it to becoming one of the most popular hot button issues in the corporate, educational, legal and political arenas. According to Shen et al. (2009), attitudes from human resource researchers and corporate towards the modern day diverse workplace environment has largely been mixed. Since the early 1990s human resource management has grown to now be perceived as being among the most popular management concepts as is evidenced by the large scale proliferation of different texts that happen to bear the title, as well as by the large number of management and university training course that have been developed so as to address the subject. However, despite all the gains that have been made in this particular field of management, diversity and gender equality issues are still commonly found to be quite absent from human resource debates as human resource policy, practice and theory nowadays tend to assume the widely accepted generic universal employee. The effect of the failure by human resource management to attend to these two key issues is quite significant and as such, human resource has invariably been left at a critical disadvantage as it plans the procedures and policies that happen to concern with diversity and gendered issues. There are a number of interesting debates in regard to the extent to which the human resource function can be used as the main driver in effecting progressive change regarding diversity and gender issues within an organization (Rahman 2013). Many human resource writers tend to agree that managing diversity and gender issues in the workplace is a considerable fit between the various diversity approaches in the workplace and the human resource function. The challenge of effectively facing human resource diversity and gender issues has been categorized as being one of the toughest challenges that is currently facing human resource practitioners and companies. These companies have quickly identified diversity management as being a very beneficial and important concern that is necessary for the eventual success of their various business enterprises. In an effort to better tackle the issues surrounding workplace diversity and gender issues, most human resource management organizations are now seen to commonly be driving their organizations towards expressing their diversity values in their operating statements. These types of statements are important in communicating the company’s general commitment towards the maintenance of a diverse and equally gendered employee base. It is important for companies to then follow through with these stated policies on diversity or else risk their becoming singled out by either legal or advocacy groups. People with mental and physical disabilities, persons of color, as well as persons with different sexual orientations are nowadays expected to work together in most workplaces. However, it is still quite possible for unfair and biased hiring practices to occur in the event that proper laws to help in guarding against this have not been enacted. Diversity and gender management in human resource management generally tends to occur through the respecting of individual rights. It is important to human resource management from a gendered or diversity perspective as it is becoming increasingly apparent that businesses can no longer manage to dictate to consumers in the modern day increasingly diversified and globalized world (Cova et al, 2012). Customers are now increasingly calling the shots and their buying decisions are seen to now be based to a large extent on whether a company and the products it is producing are well attuned to the desires and demands of consumers. Once the workplace begins to diversify, it is important to understand that cultural diversities and differences do exist; this can easily be done via its understanding gender and diversity issues from a primarily human resource perspective (Gupta 2011). Understanding these issues from a human resource management perspective can also aid the company in finding new ways of successfully adapting to new hires as opposed to trying to force these employees to adapt to the traditional office culture. Understanding human resource management from a workplace diversity and gender perspective can help the organization in fostering mutual respect among its employees. Irrespective of whether its employees work in teams or in groups, co-workers will often tend to represent diversities in cultures, generations, or gender and this synergistic work environment quickly develops into becoming the norm. Although it can prove to be quite difficult to achieve an idyllic atmosphere, employees are nevertheless able to recognize the various talents and strengths that diversity is able to bring into the workplace and are able to gain respect from their different colleagues as a result of their unique performance (Mayhew nd). Communication breakdowns within organizations generally tend to occur as a result of simple misunderstanding of another person’s perception or their response to a given situation. Depending on their cultural, gender or ethnic backgrounds, employees tend to organize information into different categories that help them to make adequate sense of the world around them. Each category is then attached with either negative or positive emotions and opinions, perspectives and judgments are then made based on the feelings that they have attached to each of these categories. How employees feel is a crucial determinant to the manner in which they will respond to a phrase, a look or a given situation and auto responses are generally given based on these perceptions. By understanding these complex issues surrounding communication with diverse work forces human resource managers and their departments will be able to successfully avoid communication breakdowns within their organizations (Mayhew nd). Understanding human resource management from both diversity and gendered perspectives can help organizations in promoting diversity and the relatively crucial role that it plays within their organizations. By promoting diversity in the workplace, human resource managers provide their companies with a beneficial head start that enables them to quickly and easily identify newly emergent trends and market practices as a result of its having a diverse workforce that is representative of all its customers. Diversity in the workplace has also been noted to help organizations in motivating the staff members, increase productivity levels and reduce absenteeism (Karsten 2006). Engaged and satisfied employees generally tend to be more productive and effective within the organization. These employees are also more likely not to shift jobs. By retaining their employees, organizations are able to make savings on resources that would otherwise be used in the hiring, recruitment and training of new staff members. While organizations that do not implement a policy of nurturing and supporting a diverse workplace may be able to easily recruit new diverse talent, they will nevertheless face a number of major challenges in the attempts to try and retain it. Numerous studies have shown that diverse employees are actually three times more likely to leave a workplace as a result of a number of reasons which include their not feeling valued, not feeling part of the organization and their being denied adequate opportunities for advancement (Kersley et al., 2013). Understanding human resource management form a gendered or diversity perspective can help human resource managers in effectively minimizing the barriers or challenges to retaining of diverse and productive workforces. The more successful human resource managers are at supporting inclusion and diversity within their organizations, the more the organizations will stand to gain from increased inclusion and engagement on the part of its employees. Customers generally tend to feel more easily engaged and represented when they are among their peers and colleagues. When an organization’s employees evenly represent the diverse members of the community in which it is a part of, this will serve to add to both the trust and credibility that it enjoys in this community; in addition, by understanding human resource from a gendered and diversity perspective, human resource managers and their departments can enable their organizations to benefit from gaining valuable cultural knowledge that will help them in better understanding the inherent needs of the communities that they serve. An example of this aspect is that employees from diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds are found to be better able to serve persons from their own communities as well as increase the organization’s cultural and language capacities (Tittle 2000). In this respect, promotion of diversity within the workforce helps the organization in better connecting with a wider variety of people while accessing deeper and broader networks. This increased community engagement can potentially result in the development of important links with new employees, potential clients, volunteers, supporters and donors. In addition to this, understanding human resource from a diversity and gendered perspective helps organizations in obtaining greater visibility, and furthering their reach within a significantly much broader support base. A key benefit that organizations stand to gain by understanding human resource from a diversity or gendered perspective is the enjoyment of greatly enhanced creativity and innovation within their workforce (Visser et al., 2010). Diverse employees are useful to organizations in the provision of different viewpoints and fresh perspectives. Well managed heterogeneous workforce teams tend to be more creative, productive and effective as compared to the homogeneous work groups. Diversity contributes to the organizations in that they are able to enjoy more effective problem-solving and decision-making via the provision of a very broad spectrum of expertise, perspectives and more robust critical evaluation process. Different perspectives within the workforce can help in drawing attention to some of the shared assumptions that may currently be implicitly guiding the business practices. The understanding of human resource management from gendered or diversity perspective by nonprofit organizations is considered to be one of the clear moral imperatives of these organizations. The nonprofit sector is tasked with the responsibility of championing causes such as equality, social inclusion, diversity, empowerment and social justice. By working towards the building of a workforce that reflects the communities within which they operate and the clients that they deal with, nonprofit organizations are better able to promote the values that they are designed to espouse. Conclusion Employee diversity is increasingly being considered to be one of the most aspects of employments and companies are increasingly trying to ensure that they employ diversity in their recruitment processes (Shen 2009). The understanding of human resource management from gendered or diversity perspectives is seen to offer a number of potential benefits to both human resource managers, their departments and their organizations in that this understanding helps them in better achieving the organizational goals. Some of the benefits of engaging a diverse workforce include the fostering of mutual respect within the workforce, the reduction of communication breakdowns within the organizations, the reduction of absenteeism, the engagement and retention of workers and having better enhanced innovation and creativity within the workforce. It is as a result of these critical and beneficial factors it is important for managers and other human resource personnel to understand human resource management from gendered or diversity perspectives to ensure success in the modern day business environment. Bibliography Cova, B. et al. 2012. Consumer Tribes. Routledge. Gupta Y. 2011. Understand the Importance of Diversity. Available at Http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/archives/2011/01/understand_the_impor tance_of_diversity.html Karsten, F. M. 2006. Organizational practices and individual strategies for women and minorities. Westport, Conn. [u.a.] : Praeger. Kersley, B. et al., 2013. Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. Routledge. Mayhew, R. nd. Why Is Diversity in the Workplace Important to Employees? Available at http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversity-workplace-important-employees-10812.html Mulholland, J. and Turnock, C. 2012. Learning in the Workplace: A Toolkit for Facilitating Learning, and Assessment in Health, and Social Care Settings. Routledge. Rahman, H. 2013. Effects of workforce diversity on human resource management: A theoretical perspective. Asian Academic Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. Year 2013, Volume-1, Issue-12 (June 2013). Shen, J., et al. 2009. 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