Diversity Action Plan - Research Paper Example

Diversity Action Plan Introduction: Workplace diversity is a serious concern for every organization today. The issues of diversity can occur in manydifferent ways in an organization. For instance, the definition of workplace diversity incorporates a number of connotations of diversity including gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, culture, language, intellectual skill, and ethnic background. There are both benefits as well as challenges of workplace diversity. The main objective of a diversity action plan is to document the strategic initiatives of the organization in order to improve and sustain diversity in its workforce.

This is important because a diverse workforce without discrimination can influence substantially on the effectiveness and efficiency of a healthy and safe working environment along with that of multicultural interaction and communication directing the organization eventually to achieve higher competitive advantage. This paper briefly addresses the initiatives of the diversity action plan of Starbucks organization and tries to explain important issues regarding the challenges and opportunities caused by diversity.

One of the most significant concerns for the organization is the current trends in population growth, which can impose direct impact on the organizational workforce while creating various advantages as well as challenges. The paper also looks into the consequences of population growth on workforce diversity.Company profile: Starbucks Corporation is the largest coffeehouse company in the world with its retail stores all over the world. Starbucks provides its retail stores over 50 states in the United States alone and over 43 countries across the globe along with a long chain of company-operated and licensed stores (Starbucks Coffee).

The Seattle-based organization envisions a diverse workforce that provides quality business services while maintaining a healthy working environment. As a global company, Starbucks believes in the concept of inclusion embracing differences and celebrating cultures.Diversity action plan: Diversity is a significant issue at Starbucks. The diversity action plan for the company emphasizes on all the relevant aspects of workplace diversity in order to meet and set new goals for an inclusive business.

With higher value products and services, the organization is committed to providing environment-friendly working conditions, developing innovative and flexible solutions, and bringing up environmental leadership in all facets of business. Principles followed by the diversity plan of Starbucks are:To maintain respect and dignity of employees as well as consumers and other business partners.To provide equal opportunities and benefits to every partner (or employee).To produce social, environmental and economic benefits for the communities in which it operates.

To provide employee (partner) benefits including health, medical, dental and vision benefits.Starbucks is a multinational corporation with a host of global alliances. Its diversity agenda also includes the issue of supplier diversity, where it chooses a supplier on the basis of the prioritized requirements of value, quality, service, business stability and business practices. Besides, the organization is involved in community investments envisioning support to young people in local as well as global communities in terms of employment, education and personal development.

Conclusion: Current trends in population growth have resulted in significant impact on organizational workforce and particularly on workplace diversity. The diverse workforce culture in Starbucks bears relevant testimony to its emphasis on diversity. This further connects the organization to a number of local and global communities. Having a multicultural workforce also helps the organization understand the importance of cultural dimensions in the perceived fairness of HR policies from country to country (Landy and Conte, 2004, p. 523). As diversity is the new norm of workplace integration (Stockdale and Crosby, 2004, p. 67), Starbucks follows it religiously to promote its mission of “embracing differences”.

References:Landy, F. J. and Conte, J. M. (2004). Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.Starbucks Coffee, www.starbucks.com.Stockdale, M. S. and Crosby, F. J. (Eds.). (2004). The Psychology and Management of Workplace Diversity. Oxford: Blackwell.