Existing Diversity Practices - Example

Research diversity policy & Implement and Review Plans Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Existing Diversity Practices Any set of people core-working cannot be modeled to act and react in a similar way. Diversity, therefore, is a healthy aspect of a people, brought together by fate and only seeking to achieve the set goals. Diversity can be defined as the existence of different characteristics, be it age, gender, sex, ethnicity, professionalism and levels of maturity, among others, between a people working under the same rules, in the same environment and towards a common goal (Smith, 1972). What can be said to be the main constituent of diversity practices in the workplace has to do with the culture of the people and of the organization as a whole. In this context, culture is used to imply the explanation of how things are done in an environment, inclusive of individual and corporate behavior. Multiculturalism is observed in the workplaces, where diversity of the employees is portrayed. Many will wish to act as accorded by their own beliefs, sometimes granted and at times not, when they are compelled to adopt the culture of the organization in question. Change in organizational culture is necessary when there are imminent problems to avoid in future. This also requires an assessment of existing culture and some elements of cross-cultural knowledge to understand exactly how members will react to the change. Leadership is essential to influence the organization’s work force to adapt change while at the same time, explain the specific reasons why the change is necessary for the success of the entire establishment. Attitudes, beliefs and values held by different people form the basis of multiculturalism in any given environment. At times these stem up positively, adding up to creativity and innovation in the concerned organization. However, there are times when diversity, and especially when misconnected, works against the values set in place and impacts negatively on the well-being of the organization. These are times when diversity creates large gaps between the employees and leads to wrangles. A competition to qualify one culture as superior as and better than the other arises, making the environment unfit for any activity (Theodoulou & Kofinis, 2004). There are many barriers to diversity in the workplaces. Chief among these is the lack of sensitivity and tolerance from the employees. These can be a result of their religious beliefs and ignorance of the communication schemes of other cultures (Reynolds & Leininger, 1993). Benefits of Diversity The impact created by diversity in any organization, whether positive or negative almost entirely depends on how the management views and appreciates diversity. It has been a common aspect in almost all managements to perceive diversity as a negative aspect in the organization. Maybe this explains why each management will always seek to keep a people of their culture, and hence their ethnic group as their subordinates. His, usually justified by those who practice it, has been said to work towards the success of the organization. To them, it aims at eliminating communication and understanding barriers, hence effectiveness and efficiency in the workplaces. On the other hand are the people who perceive diversity as having a notable percentage of people representing the minority ethnic groups, the disabled and as much as possible avoiding the people that belong to the same ethnic group as the managers? Depending on the context, this can be qualified or unqualified as being diversity. To qualify it as a means towards achieving diversity will mean redefining diversity in the workplace, to solely refer to the physical and basic characteristics of the employees. Such diversity is all exclusive, seeking to exclude potential people from working in the organization in bid to achieve diversity (Theodoulou & Kofinis, 2004). At all costs, managers should try and keep diversity much of an inclusive aspect as opposed to exclusive. Buy saying inclusive I mean a move towards employing the best workforce for the organization. Diversity here focuses on the abilities, professionalism and competency of the people, but taking into consideration their ethnicity and culture, for effective correlation. However, the main focus is to get a workforce that will achieve the organization’s objectives without much ado. Ignoring diversity when recruiting may have adverse effects on the well-being and economic placement of an organization. This may compromise on the budgets, hence financial status, and efficiency especially as regard the Marketing department and the overall productivity of the organization. On the same note, taking much interest in diversity may also compromise on so much. It may subject the process to a give and take situation, leaving out potential employees who, if hired could have seen the rise of the organization, for the sake of diversity. This, however, is not meant to disqualify diversity as being important and worth of noting, but a sensitization to the recruiting board and managers to being cautious when dealing with diversity in the workforce. Adoption and implementation of diversity in an organization, therefore, should solely rely on diversity for the right reasons. Diversity is also beneficial, as a major contributor to notable ethics in the workplace. Ethics is used to refer to the measure of how right or wrong an act is, basing on the available standards and guidelines. It focuses on human acts that affect their behavior, potential and reputation. Consciousness that an act is right or wrong stems from an aspect of morality, where the person in question is aware of and appreciates the moral norms and standards set in place. It poses concerns on how people should live, act and correlate without going against other people’s interests. There is a decision that must be made at a point that will impact either positively or negatively on the ethical issue at hand. An ethical choice, therefore, needs to be made (Theodoulou & Kofinis, 2004). In analyzing the benefits of diversity, it should first be appreciated that diversity has some positive impact in the organization. Managers should understand that diversity not only affects the internal environment but also the external environment that includes customers, contractors, key stakeholders and the potential market that has not been reached. With the move towards globalization, and being that people are on the verge of migrating from and to different parts of the country ethnicity has been a major constituent of workforce diversity. This arises with the need for the company or concerned body to have trained personnel that can attend to the needs of their customers with lots of competence, keeping the company rules and regulations and towards achieving efficiency and effectiveness. This also serves to facilitate expansion of the company to cover other areas, decisions that may be influenced by proposals made by the employees representing the minorities. This will call for people to be employed without discrimination based on their race and ethnicity in bid to improve organizational performance. With the changing trend in business and the move towards globalization there is continued need for diversity in the workplace as a crucial factor and a determinant of organizational performance. Diversity also plays a significant role in facilitating management of changes that may rise in the organization. Change management is a three in one term that refers to the sequence of steps or activities followed in effecting change to an organization either as a whole or at individual level. As a process, change management involves aspects of planning for and requesting for the change, laying down measures and strategies on how to go about it and finally putting into practice the specified strategies. The core reason or motive behind change in organizations is the desire for improvement in profit generation, hence it’s required that most if not all leaders and managers have this basic skill. Workforce diversity and more so in relation to ethnicity also helps in establishing goo relationships with the customers. Not to translate the concerned organization into a tribal ground, but nature allows for easier understanding and correlation between people who have a common background. In today’s economic world, customer relationship management is an important factor in the efficient running of any business organization. Increasingly, companies are investing a lot in building a stable customer relationship, to achieve organizational value and benefits related to established relationships. This explains why most companies have adopted workforce diversity to help boost the existing customer relationships, allowing for scalability and expansion of the scope (Smith, 1972). Diversity in the work environment presents a conducive and lively environment for effective working. This is as beneficial in acting as a motivator to the employees. There are many strategies used to ensure employees are motivated, where the environment and the job serve to determine the best strategy to be adopted. Salary increment, allowances, a friendly environment and persuasive communication in the organization are some of the forms used to motivate employees. Why then should employees be motivated? Increase in productivity is the core reason behind employee motivation. Motivated employees work at their best and within the set deadlines. This enhances improvement in productions for the company (Smith, 1972). Diversity improves the company’s competitiveness and ability to protect its customers from shifting to its competitors, creating a good atmosphere for development of strategies to monitor customer behavior and helps in effective management of the rapid speeds at which the company grows. These work together for the company, to make it competitive in the market economy. Though a viewed as a company based strategy that has much to do with the top management than other stakeholders, diversity incorporates employees, and it’s a market communication strategy. Diversity in customer’s behavior and attitude should be appreciated by the concerned company. This sensitizes them into separating them into segments according to their interests and needs. Communication is, therefore, effected according to the customers’ behavior. There are different types of segments created to suit these diverse characters. In E-commerce for instance, there are two major types of customers. One, there are the browsers, whose main objective is to visit the websites to see the products and services provided by the company and the terms and conditions under which it operates. This group is majorly provided with information showing the products they may like, y tracking their surfing history to see the sites they have visited and the kinds of products they usually preview. Then there are the shoppers, who are all set to acquire products. These don’t need so much, just information sensitizing them on availability of the products they so need (Jackson, 1992). In the recent past, world class companies have realized how critical the human resource department is to the success of the company. This is portrayed by the recent move of integrating the human resources to the strategic plans of the company. The advent of strategic human resources management gives a company a competitive advantage over the others considering how friendly and conducive the working environment is. Staffing, as pointed in the above discussion is critical to an association. It is one of the functions of the management team to recruit and dismiss people from working for the organization. Competence and effectiveness in service delivery of the staff almost entirely depends on how the recruitment process is undertaken. This helps in measuring the skills, qualifications and experience of the recruits before they are allowed to work for the company (Jackson, 1992). It is a common practice for the management to be biased when doing recruitment; this is true when dealing with relatives, friends or just close associates. This endangers the company as it then fails to take into account the requirements necessary for one to be recruited, basing the decision making on the existing relationships between the parties involved. Technology has generated a variety of communication devices, which come with diverse potential, applicability, viability and strengths and weaknesses. These devices are mostly user or task specific, each being shaped and formed to fit applicability in a given area. This has been both an advantage and a disadvantage to the end users, in that they are presented with a variety of devices, of which they have little understanding on how they work, making it difficult for them to choose the most appropriate for their case, on the other hand variety of such devices and task specific nature that comes with them means adoption of so many according to the number of problems that need to be solved (Jackson, 1992). Codes of Practices In ensuring creativity and innovation in the workplace, a key factor to fostering improved performance in the organization, diversity has to be appreciated. When a people working together towards a common goal have diverse ideas, innovation is easily effected and the quality of services, hence high profit generation rates. Different cultures offer different viewpoints towards problem solving hence diversity as a strategy towards greater and better decision making. There are some codes of practices that should be appreciated in the event of forming such a policy. Appreciation of language skills needed to ensure achievement of the company goals and objectives by catering for the needs of all people, regardless of race and ethnicity hence making the company internationally and universally recognized and acceptable. This helps in placing the company at a good position in the market economy (Jackson, 1992). A cross-cultural leader is the modern day manager who has to grapple with the fact that they will have to run organization with members from different cultural backgrounds. In other words, the 21st century leader works in a globalized workplace and should be able to understand how to deal with and interact with these diverse personalities. These diverse cultures in turn influence the organizational culture to a large extent. Needless to say, the cross-cultural leader should be aware of his position of power to affect what kind of organizational culture is adopted. Hence the leadership style practiced is the first factor to consider in pursuit of constructive interactions and communication along the organizational structure (Harvey & Allard, 2009). According to Hofstede, a cross-cultural leader needs to be, first and foremost, open-minded to the impact of five cultural dimensions. The power distance dictates how a member perceives power and the inequality that accompanies its distribution down the organizational ladder. Uncertainty avoidance determines how an individual stands situations different from the structured norms he or she is used to. The third aspect Hofstede focuses on is the individualism vs. Collectivism concept. An individual may be very fixated on his or her own progression in the job and have very strong individual beliefs or on the other hand one may be propelled solely by group dynamics. Masculinity vs. Femininity determines how much one believes that roles should be allocated to members based on gender. Lastly, there is long-term vs. Short-term orientation where a member cultivates values that are more directed towards the future than the traditional ones. These aspects play a major role in an individual’s culture both in the labor force and management. Moreover, they differ from country to country. A cross-cultural leader is one who is able to adopt different leadership styles in accordance to the kind of individuals he or she deals with. This should be complemented by Cultural Intelligence where one is able to model their reactions from what they gather from interactions with different people (Harvey & Allard, 2009). Emotional Intelligence is basic to understanding the feelings of diverse groups of people and creating a healthy organizational climate. When people from different cultures come together in a corporate culture environment, there is bound to be conflict. A cross-cultural leader will be at a better position to realize conflict management strategies. Consulting Stakeholders The first step in this process is this process is to have the stand of the leaders, who form an important part of the stakeholders. Leadership, whether cross-cultural or not, seeks to inspire a following and achievement of certain results. Thus a leader who is cross-culturally competent will probably pass on the competencies to the members of the organization. Social competence also includes the tact to communicate effectively across the channels provided in the organization. This should occur up and down the structure without impediments to allow faster information flow and improved reactions to situations (Harvey & Allard, 2009). Cross-cultural leadership also entails knowledge of cross-cultural interactions and possible scenarios. The leader should also be aware of stereotypes about cultures if they exist. The values that the leader acquires should be communicated to the members through training programmes to facilitate cohesion. Sometimes it may require the knowledge of specific cultures to run a global organization. Leaders and managers of organizations with a workforce of distinct cultures should embrace cross-cultural intelligence for success. Moreover, organizational culture spills over to the external environment in form of corporate responsibility. If employees are treated well and they feel they are part of the mission and vision of the organization, they will sell it better to the customers and other stakeholders. Moreover, if the organization has a policy on, say, going green, the picture it portrays to the public becomes better. When employees are fully in agreement with the organizational policies, it will understand when the organization takes rash decisions to meet a certain goal. It is up to HR managers to instill a spirit of doing well for the company during the entire recruitment process. Other Existing Policies Taking the case of HP and the factors that influences its diversity rules may be of much help to the development of a policy. Culture, race, age and gender form the main measures of the extent of diversity adopted. In addition, religion influences culture in some countries in a very considerable extent such that making certain comments as a foreigner would make one appear offensive or ultimately alienated. This may not be the case in a country like Russia where religion took a backseat in the Soviet rule years. However, what comes into play in such a country is the political influence. During the Soviet rule, the economy was communist meaning that most institutions were controlled by the government. After the dissolution of the system, many Multinational companies grabbed the opportunity and rushed into Russian full force because the political and economic environment was a bit more conducive than formally. Language is an unavoidable subject in the expansion of a company to other nations. First off, languages are as diverse as the countries in the world. Therefore, even though most nationals may have learnt English, there is a possibility that they do not understand it the same way the HR manager and other executives from the parent country do. In fact, the way US citizens speak English is completely different in the rest of the globe mostly because new phrases tend to crop up every other time. It would then become a problem to hold meetings or briefs in employing such phrases that would be misinterpreted by the workforce. Also, the way people communicate the language is of utmost significance because, after all, language is more than words (Dejon, 1980). Research carried out to establish the extent of diversity in Nigerian Telecommunication Market has been under examination for a reasonably long time. Research has therefore seen it as the most competitive telecom market in Africa. In Nigeria, the state telecom operator the Globacom SNO (Second National Operator) that was started off recently adds competition in the already flooded market. This stems up from the diversity practices it has adopted; it has successively cut across the cultural barriers into employing people of diverse cultures hence multi-culturalism and adoption of diverse technologies. Employment Opportunity in the workplace. How true is it to claim that everyone has a right to employment if they meet the required qualifications and yet some jobs still consider one’s looks or age as a determining factor? It then becomes a primary goal in HR management to ensure that the recruitment process does not portray discrimination in any way, especially to the disabled in society. In fact, the HR manager should be at the forefront in making the work environment, which is really the building and its surroundings, makes it easier for employees in wheelchairs or having other physical challenges work with ease (Jackson, 1992). Safety and health of the workforce is not just limited to people with disabilities but for everyone, including visitors. Focusing so much on the success of the business while compromising employee safety may cause the very organization the top management is keen on protecting major losses that will be hard to reverse. Sensitization of the workforce is the beginning of upholding this function which is still key in the HRM department. I do not think there is a function that can be done away with in this field. They all play the roles that are meant for them in collaboration with the others. Thus whether one role appears more important than the other, it is necessary for a complete HRM practice (Albrecht, 2001). A study on the case of Alcon Company explains the development and appreciation of diversity in the concept of information management giving details of its managerial positioning changing to comply with the technology required. Aspects of governance in relation to diversity are being shaped to match the global requirements that are going through a series of transformation. Like the above discussed, its diversity practice have much to do with culture and gender as its main considerations (Dejon, 1980). Aside from globalization, technology is the phenomenon that is taking over organizations and revolutionalizing everything including the Human Resource department. One thing that I wanted to be sure about is the effect of Information Technology on human capital. One could argue that it is taking out the humans and bringing in more machines. One could also argue that it is just taking out the computer illiterate generation and bringing in individuals with technological savvy. Either way, it has enabled the Human resource managers to effectively administer and carry out their functions more efficiently (Harvey & Allard, 2009). References Albrecht, M. H. (2001). International HRM: managing diversity in the workplace. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. Dejon, W. L. (1980). Policy formulation. Boston: CBI Pub. Co... Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. J. (2009). Understanding and managing diversity: readings, cases, and exercises (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. Jackson, S. E. (1992). Diversity in the workplace: human resources initiatives. New York: Guilford Press. Reynolds, C. L., & Leininger, M. M. (1993). Madeleine Leininger: cultural care diversity and universality theory. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. Smith, G. A. (1972). Policy formulation and administration; a casebook of-top-management problems in business (6th ed.). Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin. Theodoulou, S. Z., & Kofinis, C. (2004). The art of the game: understanding American public policy making. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Read More