Diversity and Management Issues - Personal Statement Example

Maxwell Ltd. is a UK based organization dealing in software development for diverse in UK and other countries of the world. Started in 1997, the company has grown from a mere 3 people (the founders) to a 150 strong workforce. With annual sales crossing pounds 70m, Maxwell has seen its operations being expanded to accommodate customers from the Middle East, Asia, and Asia Pacific regions. The organization has been serving both governments at the very local level, and businesses to implement office automation, facilitate online transactions, and has made tremendous contribution in providing highly customized software solutions to fulfill its customers’ needs. Maxwell’s employs consist of people from different backgrounds and ethnicity, and its leadership believes in providing equal opportunity to all. Harry Dondolyn is the senior manager for human resource management at Maxwell, and has been with the organization since 2000. Harry is from Wales, and he was ‘discovered’, as he says in his own words, by Alex and Guy (the founders), in a chance meeting at a friend’s dig. Having completed his degree in computer technology and having a masters in Personnel Management, made Harry an appropriate candidate for handling the workforce at Maxwell (which, in 2000, had risen to over 50 people). In our interview on diversity management, Harry has elaborated upon Maxwell’s perception of diversity, initiatives taken by the organization on the issue, and also shared with us how he feels the diversity is managed at Maxwell. The following paragraphs are presented to enunciate on the highlights of the interview. According to Harry, diversity and its management issues at Maxwell are given due consideration and importance by its leadership. There are twofold reasons why Maxwell has to acknowledge and then make arrangements for dealing with diversity. These are, firstly, Maxwell’s clients, who are from different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and geographical regions. Maxwell’s engineers have to interact with these customers on a rather intimate level while they are helping them get their systems developed or while providing customer support. Even before the technical workforce comes into the picture, Maxwell’s sales department is involved in continuous interaction with potential customers who are from varying backgrounds. Further, several onsite visits at times accompany the actual acquisition of a deal. The above therefore raises the issue of dealing with different work cultures, languages, and sometimes, with different work ethics. The second prominent issue of diversity is raised by the fact that Maxwell recruits its workforce, especially its software professionals from all over the world. Its current pool of technical employees consists of people from India, Malaysia, Eastern Europe and Egypt in addition to those originating from the UK, the US and New Zealand. Maxwell recruits from those who are already in the UK, and also accepts candidates from other countries who are referred to it by its recruitment consultant, Horizon Consultancy. Maxwell provides help to thee employees in relocation and resettlement. However, more predominant diversity issue that Maxwell faces within the organization is due to the fact that work is largely carried out in teams. Software development is done by employees working in closely-knit teams, and as such, requires that communication is smooth and healthy working relationships are maintained. This is a task that becomes rather difficult when the team is drawn from employees of heterogeneous cultures, and diverse backgrounds. Thus, according to Harry, there are two issues that pertain to the organization – one related to its clientele spanning different continents, and two, due to its workforce’s composition. Harry also elaborated on what Maxwell thinks that diversity is. According to him, at Maxwell, workforce diversity refers to the varied background of employees in terms of race, color, gender, and educational level. Maxwell believes in promoting non-discrimination on the basis of the above. Its recruitment policy strictly adheres to the commitment of non-discrimination and its training and development policies are geared towards inculcating, and refining, the skills needed to perform well among teams. Maxwell also treats its customer relationship management as a diversity issue, as many of its customers are from different cultures and espouse different attitudes and behaviors in business dealings. Harry also revealed that Maxwell not only acknowledges that it has diversity issues, but has also taken several initiatives to manage them successfully. According to Harry, the acknowledgement and acceptance of the diversity issues is the first and the most important initiative that can be quoted in favor of the Maxwell leadership. Once it was accepted that Maxwell is dealing with a workforce that is largely heterogeneous, and also doing business with clients that come from different cultures, formed the basis of building and implementing further initiatives. Managing diversity within the workplace required that all employees should ‘not’ be considered equal. At the cost of appearing a little bizarre, this policy however is based on the premise that people from different cultures and origins are bound to differ on their skills, attitudes towards work, and in exhibition of interpersonal behaviors. This leads to scope for initiatives to be take on two levels. First, at developing the job–relevant skills involving the inculcation of effective communication skills, the development of an understanding of the accepted code of conduct, and familiarization with the industry and organization level work culture. This training is largely carried out during the first few months of the employee induction. Secondly, the employees are encouraged to interact among each other by what the organization calls TGIF (or thank god it’s Friday) informal meetings. Such informal interactions provide a platform to the employees to know and understand each other, and to develop a better working relationship. Finally, Maxwell also develops customer relationship managers, to deal with its diverse clients. These managers (mostly assigned on the basis of their matching ethnicity or geographic origins to the clients) are trained in the nuances of the client’s cultures, and on the legalities of doing business with foreign countries. Harry evaluated Maxwell’s initiatives on diversity issues as adequate – he presented the fact that Maxwell has, till date, successfully completed projects for as diverse clients as those in Bahrain, Australia and Latin America. Internally, Maxwell continues to recruit and manage a diverse workforce successfully – and it gets reflected in its growing profits over the years. Summary Maxwell Ltd. comes out (in the interview) as an organization that is fully aware and conscious of its having a diverse workforce as well as varied clientele. There is an understanding of the issues involved, both while dealing with its customers and also with respect to its employees. The various initiatives that Maxwell has already undertaken are directed towards promoting an acknowledgement of the diversity issues within and outside the organization. However, there is a clear absence of any acceptance of the fact that diversity issue also arises that is related to the women (that are included in the workforce). Though Maxwell does not discriminate against women candidates while recruiting, there appears to be hardly any cognizance shown about their differing (from the male employees) approach to work, attitude or style of working. While more and more organizations are realizing the female workforce as an important asset, research has made them acknowledge that women workers have different and specific issues that might hamper their making full contribution to the organization. Organizations like Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard, have taken directed initiatives towards creating gender awareness and career development plans for women. (Women’s International Networking, 2006) Maxwell largely recognizes diversity as a resultant of the differing ethnicity of its workforce. Though there is an attempt to inculcate and refine certain job related skills (e.g. promoting proficiency in English Language, typing skill, visualization and conceptualization skills etc.), and to create healthy workplace environment (through weekly informal meetings), these initiatives cannot be classified as complete or even high impacting. Research on team functioning has found that diversity present in teams affects how members cooperate with each and also how the team performs – sometimes resulting in competitive behavior and conflicts.(Joshi and Jackson, 2003) Another very important area where Maxwell Ltd. is slacking is in terms of training its managers and team-coordinators in handling teams with diverse composition. The managers are apparently allowed to carry out their work, with their already held assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices in place. In contrast, Maxwell can do much better if it were to provide training to its managers so that they can turn the diversity into an asset for the organization. Professional help in the form of consultancy agencies like Eaton Consultancy Group, (Eaton Consultancy Group, 2004) can be availed of to develop Maxwell’s managers in this area. Maxwell Ltd. also does not appear to have career development initiatives for its varied ethnic workforce – a fact assessed by the presence of mostly white male manager level employees. This is perhaps the greatest evidence that negates the potency of the initiatives that were quoted by Harry. Maxwell. An organization like Maxwell, that has a credible workforce from diverse backgrounds, could do well by incorporating career development planning for its female and ethnic workers. The interview with Maxwell has revealed that the organization, though aware of its diverse workforce, is not consciously and energetically involved in making the diversity work as a competitive advantage for itself. Though there are several initiatives in place, a lot needs to be done to manage diversity as an asset at Maxwell. References 1. Women’s International Networking. 2006. Sponsors for the W.I.N 2005 Annual. Retrieved on 26th June 2006 from http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:-1RTrUjIX0UJ:www.winconference.net/sponsor.asp+cisco+and+women+employees&hl=en&gl=in&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a 2. Joshi and Jackson. 2003. Managing Workforce Diversity to Enhance Cooperation in Organizations. Retrieved on 28th June 2006 from http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~sjacksox/Publications/ManagingWorkforce.pdf 3. Eaton Consultancy Group. 2004. Retrieved on 26th June 2006 from http://www.eatonconsultinggroup.com/training/diversity_management.html Read More