Diversity Management: Issues in the Management of Human Resources - Essay Example

Diversity Management: Issues in the Management of Human Resources Introduction While diversity has been important for business as a legal requirement in the past years, the recent trend has been to see diversity as a tool for gaining competitive advantages. Companies around the world have gained many benefits from having a diverse workforce and their examples show that diversity can be very useful if correctly utilized (Polzer et. al, 2002). While our own company has diverse people and the strength of diversity to support the business objectives, it seems that the diversity of our workforce is not being utilised to the fullest extent. Towards this purpose, there can be several strategies that can be used and the best of those are highlighted in this report. The Strategies The first strategy which can be recommended is to make work and project teams which are geared to the diversity of the client. Brown (2005) discussed this strategy as it was applied by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) which was seeking a more diverse clientele and started with creating diverse teams for the sales force. The company quickly discovered out that attracting diverse clients requires diverse leadership and a diverse workforce as well. Simply targeting minorities in advertisements and billboards is not a guarantee for a diverse clientele since the human resources of the company at all levels must be made out of a diverse population (Torrington et. al., 2002). The president of MBA is reported to have said that diversity is not merely about connecting with a new customer market, it is a requirement for survival in the upcoming markets. Brown (2005) acknowledges that diversity programs and initiatives often fail because if used incorrectly, they can potentially waste time, money and other resources for the company. Therefore, if our company finds the client coming with a diverse team, the individuals which are selected to deal with the client should be selected with diversity in mind. Strategies in the Real World DuPont is seen as a radiant model of a company which has managed to enlarge its customer base considerably by embracing diversity as a business tool. The company takes diversity as a business essential which is vital for the renewal of business and strategic competitiveness (Lockwood, 2005). This philosophy is made very clear by the variety of strategies used for creating and maintaining diversity at the company. DuPont emphasised its process of diversity with three elements, the first of which is accountability. Accountability for the leadership of a company has been mentioned by Yuki (2006) as a vital aspect of creating commitment to a cause and in the case of diversity, accountability implies that the top level management should be answerable to the board of directors and the company stakeholders as to their diversity initiatives and methods. The second aspect is a passion for diversity and inclusion and the final and most important element is sustained involvement. If the drive for increasing diversity is not evaluated by senior management then the initiative could lose momentum and might even create negative returns for the company (Kleingeld et. al., 2004). As reported by Jung et. al. (2003), the leadership of the company has to support any idea which may seem novel and innovative to the rest of the company. Therefore, for any diversity management needs, regular participation in diversity related councils and classes are suggested as a career development path for the senior leadership in the company (Lockwood, 2005). With regard to our own company, the senior management and other stakeholders are already prepared to put time and effort into diversity initiatives. However, they must also be ready to be accountable if diversity initiatives do not meet the specifications which are agreed upon. The senior members of the company must realize that merely taking a few women or a minority group member as a part of the decision makers or giving them senior positions within the company is not the ideal process for creating diversity. The successful approach for diversity management would be to hold management answerable for results connected with diversity related issues (Kirton & Greene, 2005). Additionally, senior management must set up clear execution and reporting structures to get middle managers and workers to accept the process (Schuller, 2005). At DuPont, managers ensure accountability by integrating diversity into the overall performance evaluation process for the junior management groups. DuPont also gives bonuses to those managers who achieve their diversity related objectives for the company. Additionally, DuPont uses targeted career development path to help diverse individuals fill key work positions, thus supporting advancement for the company and addressing the present glass ceiling problems (Lockwood, 2005). All these factors clearly show that diversity is important for DuPont and it should also be important for companies like ours who wish to gain benefits from diversity in the workforce. A Simpler Solution Large companies may need programmes which are even more complex and far reaching than the one used by DuPont but many can get by with a less complex programme to get the initial benefits of diversity implementation. Quaker Oats is one such company that manages diversity related issues using only two tools. The first of which is their internal diversity progress chart and the second is the diversity accountability guideline (Lockwood, 2005). These items are used to initiate and maintain the diversity best practices guide for the company. As an additional strategy, the level of diversity can also be tied to the variable portion of a manager’s compensation which is a practice followed by nearly 10% of all the companies on the Diversity Inc’s List of Top 50 Companies which includes DuPont and many others (Lockwood, 2005). The list is international in nature and as suggested by Francesco and Gold (2005) the importance of diversity is not only relevant to one country but it has international implications for any MNC. Creating Creativity Diverse teams are likely to be more creative and innovative than those who are composed of a homogenised group of individuals (De Dreu & West, 2001). This means that a diversified team of individuals would perform much better at tasks which deal with an require creative thinking than other groups. For example, Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple computers focuses deeply on diversity and says that it is simply a requirement when creativity needs to be the defining element of a product or service. Talking about the team which create the first Macintosh computer, Steve Jobs said that, “I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world (Jobs, 2007, Pg. 1)”. Clearly, with a diverse team, the solutions presented from the same problem become more creative since there are several different backgrounds, viewpoints and subjective views which can be taken of the issue rather than one point of view alone. Using Client Perceptions A varied workforce may be difficult to uphold in places where the consumer’s own mentality and public biases suggest than one gender, race or ethnicity is better at performing a task than the other (Crawford et. al. 2002). It can also be exploited as a reason for success since the person whose gender fits the mental job description as upheld in stereotypes may be able to win and convince more clients than others (Eagly and Karau, 2002). These stereotypes and their effect on counter-stereotypical professionals also suggest that as society progresses towards a more differentiated and diverse workforce; such biases will disappear over time (Sherman, 1996). On a financial and legal level, the case for diversity is well made, yet there are reports which suggest that companies across the globe do not have the diversity ratios which are recommended by experts. Clarke (2005) suggests that even countries like America that pride itself on being open and accepting to all, the workplaces still contain biases. He says: “The days of politically correct multiculturalism have not contributed to the end of bias. Workplace discrimination is alive and kicking, and statistics of job-related bias against African Americans and women remain eye-opening. One in five professionals knows someone who has suffered inequity on the job. Despite that nearly half of African Americans surveyed said their employers actively promote diversity, more than 31% can name someone who has been on the receiving end of racial discrimination. (Clarke, 2005, Pg. 38)”. While the American situation is negative to some extent, the conditions in Europe and the UK are not much better (CIPD, 2006). It has been many years since diversity was seen first as a legal requirement. Many more than when it was seen as a tool for boosting the business outlook for a company yet there are still those firms who struggle with diversity initiatives and are puzzled when they are faced with discrimination and racism lawsuits (DTI, 2006). Most surprisingly, some of these firms are the most respected and admired companies in the world. Conclusion The situation of diversity related problems certainly exists across the business world especially when teams are being formed (De Dreu & West, 2001). It seems that society at large has yet to come out of the stereotypical images of the Asian, Indian, African, and in some cases, the woman groups as they are seen in western culture (Jussim et. al.,1987). The corporate culture, as called by Sherman (1996), is simply a reflection of the society in which it operates and as long as we have racial or gender conflicts in society we can expect problems with diversity in the British workforce. Instead of ignoring the issues that a company has with the gender, race and cultural differences between the employees, the companies must accept that there are issues which need to be resolved (Kirton & Greene, 2005). Since our own company has decided to handle these issues and accept that diversity is beneficial for the business purposes of our organisation, it is likely that we will benefit from the diversity strategies outlined above and shall be able to successfully implement them in the future. Works Cited Brown, R. V. 2005, ‘The ROI of Diversity’ Mortgage Banking, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 111-113. CIPD. 2006. ‘Diversity and equality’, CIPD.co.uk, [Online] Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/dvsequl/ Clarke, R. D. 2005, ‘Workplace Bias Abounds’, Journal of Black Enterprise, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 38-39. Crawford, M., Sherman S. J., and Hamilton D. L. 2002, ‘Perceived Entitativity, Stereotype Formation, and the Interchangeability of Group Members’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 1076-94. 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