Effective Diversity Management Strategy - Assignment Example

?Ireland is a Country famously known for many aspects of its society including Music, Color, Culture and Hospitality. The Irish are known greatly forrespecting not only their own norms and values but the norms and traditions of other societies; they never let down or disrespect people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. They give high regard to their own norms alongside as well; even today the Irish plantation and farming methods are very similar to what they adopted in the past (suggesting a consistency culture) and more importantly, these methods have till today proved to be more effective and efficient when compared to modern techniques1. Irish music on the other hand has also attained fame worldwide as Irish tunes are recognized by various diverse societies making Irish music stand out. Hospitality is a key element that establishes and shapes perceptions of people. People coming from diverse backgrounds merge on different occasions owing to the effects of globalization today, and how one remembers one another depends on the hospitality of the person. Many people have opted for Irish citizenship as a result of their great hype of hospitality which is said to be learned by Irish people from their ancestors2. The director of the film “Braveheart” reported how easily he managed to get access to Irish land and performed his tasks without troubles owing to the nature and hospitality of Irish people. To promote their culture, beliefs, ideologies and to motivate and educate the younger generation with the philosophy of Irish culture, a festival is held in Irish known as the ICONS (Irish Connections) festival3; it is an optimistic way for new people from diverse localities to experience what the Irish have to offer. The world we reside in today is globally connected, we tend to relate and compare to societies all around the world4. In such an environment, “Managing Diversity” is becoming popular not just as a concept but as a theoretical course in many different universities across the globe. Different societies have different norms and values and judge actions accordingly. Diversity is beneficial as it ensures the best outcome and efficiency, however, it comes with a cost; a manager of an organization needs to be well aware of management tactics as to manage people from various cultures. This concept is vital for multi National organizations who employ thousands of people all around the world from different ethnicities. Since these people come from different places, they tend to think differently and often their opinions will differ with their counterparts, in such situations within organizations, it may lead to chaos and worsening reputation. Thus, companies such as Unilever and P&G tend to employ the best graduates from top most business schools for management of their staff. Irish people themselves are said to be open minded and flexible, with great regard to hospitality. However, this hospitality may be pertaining to certain occasions; there are times when every human being exhausts on its capability and goes off the page. Thus, just by looking at the culture of Irish people one cannot conclude they will likely make good managers who will be fully capable of managing diverse cultures and issues. Managing diversity is not as easy as it sounds; people are properly trained to handle tough situations for both the environment and the organization. Generally, Irish people are famous for hospitality. The likelihood that Irish people will not indulge in conflicts with people from diverse culture is high, but within organizations at Ireland or let’s say events at Ireland where different people from diverse localities come together meet, they might not be from such a friendly culture as Irish and hence may end up indulging in conflicts. Irish managers have to take a lot into account for the organization or for the community as a whole. If one talks about an Irish organization’s strategic Diversity management plan, it is important to ask a few questions like5: Do we actually have diversity? What sort of Diversity do we experience? Is it race or gender? Time and Cost allocation, will we get approvals? What do the training costs and benefits analysis tell us? Who to involve and who to exclude from the plan? All these questions are important and need to be thought of by managers before coming up with any plan. In Ireland, the open minded people exclude the possibility of gender diversity hence the cultural diversity that will likely remain would be on the basis of Race. Then comes the idea of cost benefit analysis; incase of big organizations (multi-nationals) it is likely that cultural diversity would prevail hence it makes sense to indulge in research and to come out with a comprehensive strategy for diversity management that not only addresses the issues the organization faces but is also in line with the organization’s aims and objectives. Other types of Diversities that Irish organizations may face can include6: Social category diversity: diversity on the basis of race may turn out to be a common problem and if not addressed, can lead to big conflicts resulting in chaos. They may also turn out to be very violent; hence it’s essential to address problems in this case. Informational diversity: diversity that relates to differences in level of education, knowledge or experience. This may also lead to conflicts but not necessary as aggressive or violent as social category diversity. However, the negative consequences of this may lead employees to be de-motivated and de-moralized, as a result affecting the overall performance of an organization. Hence, if the organization is to work efficiently, this type of diversity has to be managed effectively; there are various examples of organizations that failed to succeed as a result of a de-motivated workforce. It is the importance of motivation that led F.W Taylor, Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs) and Herzberg to develop theories for the topic that got so much fame worldwide. Value diversity: diversity in which people may differ in relation to personality and attitudes. This is a problem that people in Ireland may face not only pertaining to various organizations (International and local) but also in different places within their locality (example public places). However, this is not a big problem for Ireland owing to its culture and flexible environment, none the less, one cannot exclude this diversity from the Irish culture, and this also has to be looked into for smooth running of the society as a whole in Ireland. These factors have forced managers globally to look into cultural diversity and management. These issues can have serious negative consequences on business performance and may lead a business onto a path that will hamper its performance and affect its stakeholders in a negative manner. Action Plan to implement an Effective Diversity Management Strategy: Determine whether if there already a diversity management strategy is being used, if so, analyze it to determine what are the problems faced. If it does not exist, work to develop a new one. Identify trends in employees, their reactions to different scenarios and how they treat people from different diversities (on basis of gender, age or culture) differently. Identify the seriousness of the issue so as to ensure the level of training required. After identification, make a proposal and allocate enough training time. Training proposal for awareness should involve the use of effective guest speakers. Besides training, look into the possibility of separating work allocation of people of different diversities to avoid any clashes and ensure full productivity of the workforce. Implement the plan and measure the outcome after analysis for comparison. The action plan may vary from organization to organization depending on how diverse it is, or what challenges it faces. Irish managers would definitely want a healthy peaceful environment within an organization and hence would likely work on it; they should keep in mind the company objective and align their decisions for diversity management accordingly. Also, a “gap analysis” should be made to assess the level of differentiation between the staff members. In order for such analysis, organizations may use one of the following three tools; Diversity driver, diversity excellence model and equality standards7. People may tend to argue that there may not be any need to cultural diversity management in Ireland as Ireland is already doing very well according to statistics on such issues. However, there have been cases because of which people tend to study cultural diversity for better outcomes. As this essay explained, diversity has many aspects with in it and Ireland falls victim to certain issues pertaining to diversity which cannot be neglected. Hence, Dr John G. Cullen has specialized in leadership and organizational behavior and agrees to the fact that cultural diversity is an essential issue that is faced by every nation including Ireland and managers have to look into it. It is also a factor that adds strain to the shoulders of an Irish manager8. Is Ireland coping up with the challenge of cultural diversity? A research conducted reveals that employees within Northern Ireland are properly looked after and managed despite various concerns by different sects of people on cultural diversity issues. Employers have faced problems but have adapted effective strategies and have come over the problem of cultural diversity within workplaces. Irish were famous for hospitality and this research has proved that people of Ireland have great respect for their culture, norms and values. It was done by interviewing employers across Northern Ireland and proved that Irish managers adapt a proactive management system that highlights a positive and healthy corporate culture within organizations across Ireland9. References: 1. Andrew, McGregor. “Irish Hospitality, culture, color and Music”, (April 2010). Education Articles 2. Andrew, McGregor. “Irish Hospitality, culture, color and Music”, (April 2010). Education Articles 3. Kate Sullivan, Foley. “A bit of Irish Hospitality”. Aug, 20’ 2008. Canton Journal 4. Graeme. Harper – Director Collaboration Laboratory – “Seize the Global Day”, (Sep 2011). Times Higher Education, United Kingdom 5. Strategic Diversity Management Plans – 2011, Society for Human Resource Management. 6. Rischard, O.C. (2000) Racial Diversity, business strategy and firm performance: a resource based view. Academy of Management Journal 7. Watson, W.E., Kmar, K. and Michaelsen, L.K. (1993) Cultural diversity’s impact on interaction process and performance. Academy of Management Journal (Vol 36, pp590-602). 8. J.Cullen, M. O’Connor and J. Mangan. “Management development in Ireland”. Journal of Management development (2006). 9. Frances, D. Tom Baum, Niamh, H. and Adrian D. Managing Cultural Diversity, “Opportunities and challenges for northern Ireland Hoteliers - Emerald Journals. Read More