Analysing the Importance of Multiculturalism in Present Day Workplaces - Essay Example

 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.Introduction 3 1.1Concept of Workplace Diversity 3 1.2Role of Organization 4 1.3Present Issues 5 2.Discussion and Analysis 6 2.1Reasons for Diversity Management 6 2.2Challenges to Diversity Acceptance 7 3.Conclusion 8 4.Recommendation 8 4.1Strategies for Increasing Workforce Awareness 9 Reference List 10 Bibliography 10 1. Introduction Peter F. Drucker in his new book, Management Challenges for 21st century, mentioned of eight assumptions for the social discipline of management which explain the imperativeness of work, workers and workplaces to culminate into a successful business goal. In this insightful and timely information on individuals and organizations, the element of workforce diversity has been explained to be of significant importance. If an organization applies a successful diversity management policy and programme, it is found to improve the productivity of the organizational workforce. In order others, a diversified workforce results in productive business environments (Mondy and Noe, 2006). This report will make an attempt to justify the significance of diversity and their effect on maximizing and capitalizing from the perspective of present day management. This essay begins with an assumption that managing and valuing organizational diversity to be the key to effective people management, improving productivity of a workplace. 1.1 Concept of Workplace Diversity Workplace diversity is a strategic management approach focussing on people and their similarities and differences with respect to an organization. The melting point theory proclaims of multiculturalism initiatives in aiming to perceive integration and inclusion of separate groups in order to enhance productivity. With respect to a typical workplace, the issues of gender, class, age, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, spirituality and public assistance. Other than population growth, diversity gives an invaluable opportunity to increase competitiveness (Aghazadeh, 2004). The concept is not new and it is regarded as an ongoing process to bring organizations, communities and society into an inclusive, wholesome and a fully culturally entity. Griffin postulated that workforce diversity to b mostly related to the similarities and differences among employees in an organization. The boundaries of management discipline has expanded nowadays and in order to build more competitive organizations, all policies and practices in the prevailing constituency need to be considered for analytically reflecting on an organizational work-force diversity (Belfry and Schmidt, 1988). 1.2 Role of Organization In the 21st century, active citizenship deals with a culturally sensitive consciousness and global orientation to towards progressive growth (Al-Lamki, 2002). With respect to a company and its benefits, diversity is unavoidable and is an essential business concern. In the present age of extensive information exchange and globalization, multiculturalism is seen as the tool to manage quality and diversity at workplace. Through an intrinsic approach to maintaining business ethics and human interrelationships, the contribution of each and every individual in the human resource (HR) management is considered by the multi-diversified organization (Burke and Ng, 2006). With this newly identified paradigm to the concept of 21st century organizational demands, businesses nowadays are keen on creating a humane interface to the business transactions. The reality of management styles and challenging structural landscape of present day businesses is concerned with other aspects of human resource, other than structural components (Patrick and Kumar, 2012). Hence, a holistic approach is necessary, which deals with managing all people-related differences and bringing out productivity, by synergistically combining all units together. 1.3 Present Issues Organizations nowadays are keen on exploring newer dimensions of strategic management. For this people and resources need to be managed judiciously in order to gain a competitive edge over others in the industry. A closer analysis of all organizations and market place perspectives reveals the following factors, such as, demographics of workforce, leadership, workplace diversity management, learning and development, geographical and socio-economic variance (Cox, 1994). The present challenges of workforce diversity circle around the implicit notion of how to maintain harmony by meting out equal treatment to everyone around the organization. In order to maximize the potential and maintain harmony, the senior and managerial rank members should be respecting, valuing and representing good behaviour towards all, despite any racial background, caste, creed, colour and ethnicity. On the other end is the employee behaviour towards each other and the employers. To attain a diversity-sensitive environment I an organization is difficult and organizations find it challenging to manage diversity effectively in a workplace (Deshwal and Choudhar, 2011) 2. Discussion and Analysis 2.1 Reasons for Diversity Management There could be many justifications for diversity management in an organization: Managing diversity could overrule the problems of talent shortage, reducing the problems of employee turn-over and regular absenteeism. Companies could get the best of workforce by accommodating people from varied gender, race. The greatest challenge of workforce diversity is eliminating talent on the basis of ethnicity and racial background (McInnes, 2013). A person could successfully contribute to the welfare of an organization and his/her personal growth and should be accommodated within any capacity with the right possession of talent and skills. In order to achieve organizational growth, companies nowadays need to serve a diverse customer base, catering to the specifications of a culturally tumultuous market in different locations across the globe. Using a multi-cultural approach, organizations can benefit immensely from the predominant culture and the other intermingling assimilations happening across diverse work-cultures. In the present age of extreme globalization, when organizations or businesses are starting to operate in an international scale, being locally grounded at the same time, it is necessary that more and more businesses adapt to internationalism in their operations, by displaying multiculturalism. There would be variances in price, labour and products across various locations that present challenge to ambitious pursuits, especially smaller organizations. Maintaining diversity is workforce is the utmost need of most of the organizations and more and more companies needs to adhere to conform to the international code of conduct. 2.2 Challenges to Diversity Acceptance In a country with huge diversity of race, religion, culture, language an socio-economic background, analyzing the various aspects of organizational structures to create a unified work-culture approach is difficult as there could be variance in the form of people wanting to work people from their ethnic group, leaving a small percentage of people open to mixing with people from other ethnicity. When innovation is the need for progression, getting new ideas is possible healthy exchange among people with diverse background (Burke and Ng, 2006). Organizations want to achieve the axiom of poductivity and growth. In this the management also needs to be careful about the needs and requirements of its employees. This would help them stay loyal and hardworking towards the goals of increasing company’s productivity and profit. For exchange of ideas and collaborative team-work, every member needs to be encouraged to bring ideas to the table to devise the best possible solution. Learning and development, in this case, helps out a person to get exposed to challenging organizational culture and gain more insight on the on the global environment (Aghazadeh, 2004). The former is successfully achieved through effective communication. The work-environment should be more effective to establishing a healthy communication cycle, not only within employees, but also with external stakeholders. Another challenge is to accommodate diverse experiences into one melting pot, which is achievable through systematic pooling of talents and strengthening responsiveness and productivity to challenging conditions. Therefore, to manage workforce diversity and maintain a healthy organizational culture, the management needs to understand and acknowledge the aspects of diversity and people-management. Through a close understanding and respectful acceptance, the company become self-aware of the benefits of multiculturalism and readily accepts to understand and adapt other’s culture, identity beliefs to imckprovise in their own capacities (Drucker, 2007). 3. Conclusion An imperative factor in present day organizational excellence, acknowledging diversity as a resource imperative and of economic value has been proven. It is time that companies need to legalize this aspect as a directive so that more and more categories of people are accepted to be a part of a growing enterprise. Thereafter, as success starts building, companies could utilize it for further marketing about their ethical responsibility and establish healthy communication chains for creating efficient work-force. 4. Recommendation From the above discussion it is clear that for managing a multicultural environment, managing diversity begins by acknowledging the various people differences and recognizing them to be pertinent to success and growth of an organization. This consideration deliberates an affirmative action plan that that focuses eliminating all historical discrimination, based on creed, color, race and gender. This also calls for implementing these thought-processes in the form of structured legalized measures within the internal operations of an organization. 4.1 Strategies for Increasing Workforce Awareness Develop an understanding and inculcate more acceptance of managing diversity within an organization. That diversity is unavoidable and should be threaded as a management concept is necessary to adopt. This mindset should be permeating within an organization. Eliminating discrimination and differences is the necessary for developing self-awareness. There could be more and more training and motivation programmes arranged by the management on such aspects. Thereafter, employees would be more willing to accept challenge and adapt to any form of institutional change and brainstorm ideas with increased motivation and commitment towards ultimate business goals. Reference List Aghazadeh, S. M., 2004. Managing workforce diversity as an essential resource for improving organizational performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 53(6), pp. 521-531. Al-Lamki, S. M., 2002. Orientation: The essential ingredient in cross-cultural management. International Journal of Management, 19(4), pp.568. Belfry, M., and Schmidt, L., 1988. Managing the diverse work force. Employment Relations Today, 15(4), pp. 335-339. Burke, R. J., and Ng, E., 2006. The changing nature of work and organizations: Implications for human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), pp.86-94. Cox, T., 1994. Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Deshwal, M. P., and Choudhary, D. S., 2011. Workforce diversity management: Biggest Challenge for 21st Century Managers. WORKFORCE, 1(3). Dike, P., 2013. The impact of workplace diversity on organisations. [online] Available at:< http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu> [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Drucker, P. F., 2007. Management challenges for the 21st century. London: Routledge. McInnes, R., 2013. Workforce diversity: Changing the way you do business. [online] Available at:< https://saylor.longsight.com/handle/1/1737> [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Mondy, W. R, and Noe, M. R., 2006. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education. Patrick, H. A., and Kumar, V. R. 2012. Managing Workplace Diversity Issues and Challenges. [online] Available at :< http://classic.sgo.sagepub.com/content/2/2/2158244012444615.short> [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Bibliography http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/ Lentin, A., Titley, G., and Younge, G., 2011. The crises of multiculturalism: Racism in a neoliberal age . London: Zed Books. Stevens, F. G., Plaut, V. C., and Sanchez-Burks, J., 2008. Unlocking the benefits of diversity all-inclusive multiculturalism and positive organizational change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), pp.116-133. Read More