Managing Diversity in Globalized World - Essay Example

Managing Diversity” The advancements in technologies and the concept of globalization have brought people closer to each other. People are now able to connect with anyone and are able to move from one place to the other within no time. The impact of this ease is not limited to leisure, tourism and educational fields but the businesses are also greatly affected by this change. The organizations have experienced both positive and negative effects of globalization. The businesses, educational institutes, and other concerned bodies are incorporating these changes brought in as a result of globalization within their policies and regulatory systems. Businesses are more motivated to regulate such policies and rules that may attract more qualified and competent staff. The availability of staff is no longer limited to the geographical region where the organization is situated. Moreover the concept of globalized businesses, as international business chains, has made it difficult for the policy makers of organizations to achieve success and satisfaction of staff by implementing the same policies in all branches of the global business chain. However, those organizations that become successful in developing and implementing the strategies and policies to attract, employ and retain skilled and proficient staff may be able to achieve competitive advantage and improve the organizational effectiveness and efficiency. The success of businesses and the achievement of competitive advantage is greatly dependent on the efficient utilization of one of the most important resources available to an organization i.e. staff. The human resource development provides procedures and processes which encourage learning, change and development of individuals, groups and overall organization (Mankin, 2003, p. 5). Line or operational managers are integral to this objective of HRD for different reasons. The importance of line managers is promoted basically to deal with situations that occur as a result of globalization and advancement in technology. The line managers are responsible to assure the wellbeing of employees to increase their productivity, overcome their skill shortages and competence development among them (Garavan et al., 1999; Gibb, 2003; McCracken & Wallace, 2000). Heraty & Morley (1995) described line managers as ‘key stakeholders’ in defining their importance. However there is limited empirical data available to support the claim that line managers play a vital role in HRD (Heraty & Morley 1995). In the recent years the work of managers is more complex than before. They now have the responsibility to direct employees and take into account the needs and demands of the customers. Both the groups that are under the supervision of managers are diverse racially, culturally and morally. Due to such diverse employees and customers, organizations are now more concerned to take this issue into consideration before enforcing any policy or regulation. A common mistake is to associate the concept of diversity with certain groups or people. However, the truth is beyond this misconception. Diversity “includes all characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals." (Courtland 1998 p. 64) The concept of diversity involves all factors associated with individuals including race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation. It also involves the way of communication, working style, organizational status, financial position and geographic origin of the individuals. Hence diversity is an approach that keeps an eye on all these factors and provides a challenging task for the managers to maintain equality among the employees. It is inevitable that all individuals are born with some inborn traits and have some distinguishing qualities which are required to be recognized and utilized efficiently. The important factor is to recognize these valuable traits that are available in the taskforce and use them to increase the productivity at individual level and make way towards a sustainable organizational growth (Cox 1994). Diversity is beyond a business necessity and must be viewed as a business opportunity. The available diverse workforce must be recognized and utilized to support the mission and objective of the business. The proper use of diverse workforce increases employee satisfaction and encourages them to continue with the employment along with increasing productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction (Gore 2000). Human Resource Practices are now increasingly dependent on the role that line managers play. Line managers affect the thoughts and perceptions of workers regarding the organizational equality. Cornelius et al. (2000) states that the diversity management is more effective and successful when a proactive and brilliant line management is involved in this process. It has also been observed that managers are taking more and more interest and taking a great responsibility to support human resource practices in their workplaces (Guest 1987; McGovern et al. 1998; Hall and Torrington 1998). The delegation of authority and responsibility of HRM to the managers gives them the power and a duty to manage employees. It is however, noticeable that the research indicates towards the selective duties that line managers agree to take on or are committed to perform (McGovern et al. 1998). The aspect that encourages the involvement of line managers in the Human Resource practices is the setting of short-term people-oriented business plans (Gordon et al 1991). The research carried out by Hutchinson and Wood (1995) exposes the areas of HR practices where line managers are normally involved. These areas include the recruitment and selection processes, induction, training requirements and management of disciplinary procedures. These areas involve the line managers further in to the area that focuses on building an environment where equality, justice and un-discriminated rules prevail. This involves the management of the diverse workforce without giving additional advantage or disadvantage to any counterpart of the organizational society. Hence the management of the organization’s social capital is another major responsibility of line managers. This involves protecting the interpersonal relationships, beliefs, group climate, trust, loyalty etc. within the organization. As described above, line managers are now involved in managing the diverse workforce and creating a non discriminated environment of work for them. However, there are a number of challenges that they face during their struggle to achieve this goal. Line managers are not involved in the process of policy making of the organization and government that are made to ensure equality based environment. Hence it becomes difficult to manage the diverse workforce without proper policies and strategies available. The main challenge that diversity management process faces is the different background of diversity professionals. Their perception about diversity and equality in the workplace differ greatly (Kirton et al., 2007). The line managers are obliged to follow the rules and implement the policies provided to them. They cannot come up with their own rules and laws. Hence, if they think there needs to be a change in the policy they have to convince the policy makers on their perspective. This is a difficult task as they cannot explain the circumstances that they face in the operational environment. The issue of diversity should be taken into account during the strategic planning process to avoid such problems from happening. The implementation of proper diversity initiative is deemed to be very expensive and problematic to some organizational leaders. Others believe that such initiative end up in disruption and disturb productivity. Hence without support from the upper management it becomes an un-accomplishable goal for the line managers to implement equality. Such concepts of the policy makers and internal issues of the organizations pose a threat to effective diversity management practices. (Robinson et al. 1994) Continuously changing workforce makes it more challenging to create and implement a proper diversity management initiative. The workforce now consists of more female members, immigrants, minority and culturally diverse people. It is an additional challenge for the managers to transform these members into efficient, skilled, qualified and productive resource for the organization along with managing the concept of equality and fairness among them. The diverse labor available also includes people with different living standards, marital status and abilities (both physical and mental). In addition, single parent, part-time workers, socially handicapped and others also need to be considered when making strategies. These aspects are normally ignored hence creating problems for the managers during the implementation process (Mathew et al. 1996). The main problem is to create a close relationship with the human resource management and explanation of these issues and their importance in diversity management. Organizations require efficient workforce to keep the business running and successful. Line managers expect to attain and retain such workers from the labor market. Human resource departments are responsible to recruit, select and train employees that are most suitable for the nature of work in consideration. The gap between line managers and human Resource departments and weak relationship among them is a threat to the overall performance of the organization. Line managers can better explain what number of employees, with how much qualification, with which qualities and of what age and gender must be hired. They can also provide necessary information about the training requirements and skill development needed in the workforce. The change required, if not responded to accurately, may disrupt the organizational operations and will end up creating negative thoughts about the organization in employees’ views. These problems also discourage the line managers to respond positively to the diversity and equality policies. They do not get enough powers to create their own policies and become unable to treat the unskilled and skilled, efficient and inefficient, qualified and unqualified employees equally. Diversity is advantageous for the business, workforce, employer, society and overall success of businesses. However it is difficult to manage diversity but the potential advantages it brings encourages organizations and countries to accept this concept and manage it accordingly. Diversity can be a success factor in the recent era where organizations can achieve competitive advantage using their creativity and flexibility not only in the policies and processes but also in the selection of labor. With the advantages it brings there are a number of challenges that organizations face. Diversity management is a complex function for the organizations as it requires not only to be incorporated in the plans but is also requiring to be implemented efficiently. Diversity management is not merely an art of recognizing the differences between people but also weighing these differences, fighting against discrimination and encouraging creativity. During the diversity management process line managers, along with their other duties, face the challenge of keeping a balance between workers. They may be entitled for prejudice and discrimination regardless of the efforts they make they may be held liable for the complaints and decrease in productivity due to misunderstandings and misconceptions of labor. Employees may also opt for legal proceedings in case of discrimination on any ground. This posses another threat for the position of line manager hence they find it difficult to accept diversity and equality policies as a part of their jobs (Devoe 1999). The discrimination stereo typing and prejudicial acts in the process of recruitment selection retention and termination processes may lead to negative attitudes of the employees. Although such behaviors are not resulted from a manager’s function or roll it becomes difficult for them to manage such behaviors in the work place. (Esty, et al. 1995) Line managers need proper guidance and training for diversity management. It is not a simple task that cannot be done without proper knowledge of diversity. Managers are provided with a number of skills that are required to prepare winning labor force. Line managers must completely understand discrimination, laws relating to it and its outcomes. Moreover they must have full understanding about cultural differences, prejudice on its grounds in possible effects of it (Koonce2001). Diversity does not include bias between groups but it incorporates the concept of bias on individual bases. Hence managers are required to indentify each individual as a unique and valuable asset for the organization and must not expect all others from his cultural ethnic or religious group to be the same. Diversity management brings this challenge for the managers and provides an additional responsibility of keeping all these key issues in mind (koonce 2001; Foster & Harris 2005). Unluckily there are no hard and fast rules for effective diversity management. Managers need to have proper understanding focus and abilities to recognize the practices that may help the organization flourish. Diversity management is a comprehensive procedure of building and unbiased environment for workers where each individual matters. However, provision of equal opportunities and rights may not always be as beneficial as people perceive it to be. Foster & Harris stated in their research that more diverse workforce may create more difficulties for the management indecision making processes, voting results and team building. The underlying fact is that it is easier to gather and integrate like-minded people (Foster and Harris 2005). They are ready to mingle with the people of their standard, backgrounds or origin. However, a more diverse workforce means more differing views on matters, more grouping requirements and more dissatisfaction among employees. Line managers, who are responsible for team making and creating an environment of ease and satisfaction for the workers, find an excessive diversity in the workforce difficult to manage. Conclusion: We can conclude that diversity is necessary and important for a healthy and flourishing business these days. The diverse workforce does not only bring new talent, creativity, more opportunities and capability to improve performance but also brings a number of dangers. These dangers are related to the relationship, understanding and viewpoints of workers. Their approach and perceptions are important and carry great weight to bring change in the organizational culture. These dangers are to be dealt with greater care and responsibility. Organizations may use diverse workforces as an asset but they may also be the greatest threat to the success of the business. Hence organizations are continuously trying to reduce and further eliminate the risk of mishaps and dissatisfaction between employees. For the purpose of solving these diversity issues, line managers are working in collaboration with HR departments. Line managers have their own responsibility but since they are more involved with the workers, they can better understand the policies and management processes to keep the workforce organized and controlled. Regardless of all advantages diversity brings, it is important to keep the negativity of this concept in mind. The diverse workforce, if not handled and managed properly, may create disruption at the workplaces and the tension between the employees may affect their performance. Knowing the value of these remarkable resources, line managers are properly trained to deal with them. 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