Diversity in an Organization - Essay Example

?TOPIC: DQ WEEK 8 INTRODUCTION: Diversity embraces and approves the variety of characteristics that makes an individual different in an environment which respects and celebrates the individuality of a person in whatever way he/ she is different. It involves several forms of differences like educational, cultural, racial, economical, sexual, geographical and creed. In the present era, where world is now considered as a global village, Organizations and its management have accepted the fact of embracing people from all around the world to come and work together for a single goal. But at the same time we can never deny the fact that it is not completely accepted by different communities and they still feel and keep an arms’ distance between them. As far as blacks and whites racial differences are concerned, it is deep rooted and it is still circulating among these two major populations since ages. For a brief review, Civil war of U.S at the time of John F Kennedy was mainly grounded on racial differences. Negrophobia is another master piece written by Mark Bauerlien in which he enlivened the history of bloodshed and tears during Gubernatorial Elections of 1906. All these incidents are the living proofs of the discrimination present between blacks and whites. Coming back to our topic of discussion, Management of workforce diversity is not as easy as it is said or asked in theories. Secondly theories based on one simple way of dealing workforce diversity is productively argued and justified by Barbara Parker and Parshotam Dass as there is no thumb rule to manage diversity at work places. However if perspectives are followed as guidelines, it can improve and bring fruitful changes. Moreover (Ely and Thomas, 2001) narrated different opinions of scholars about both negative and positive outcomes of workforce diversity. In this article, a case study “It wasn’t about race or was it (2000)” is further justified in relevance to scholarly theories and personal opinions CASE STUDY: According to case represented by (Jeffrey C. Connor, 2000), It is reflecting, that the initial concern Hope showed wasn’t based on racial differences or any kind of biases but her later acts took the case in that direction, for example if she checked his Id and got satisfied then she should have thanked him for his cooperation which might have given Dillon, a chance to clear his messed situation while entering without his Id. At the same time, Dillon was reacting over sensitively to the issue which wasn’t an issue at all like John Borgia said. But Dillon wasn’t completely wrong because he faced a racial difference within his team before on which he kept quiet. This was his insecurity since his last experience and he finally stood up to make his voice clear after he was countered by a white lady. On the other hand, Jack’s concern was truly natural that if such a simple incident could trouble and shake the diversified workforce into two major groups then issues beyond this extent would collapse the system. I disagree with John Borgia about his later suggestion that Jack shouldn’t attend the meeting the way it was planned. According to him, Jack should subside the issue by making Dillon and Hope calm and advise them to take things differently. However a better option is given by Jeanette Millard that Jack should continue analyzing the reaction of other employees and it would be better to openly discuss and make everybody realize to respect people’s integrity and differences as Fuller Fenton was meant to accommodate workforce diversity for positive and efficient outcomes. On a larger scale, Jack is supposed to review the grounds on which Fuller Fenton works. Its best part was working and managing workforce diversity which wasn’t fulfilled later by different team members. In my opinion, If a firm has kept its roots to work and accommodate workforce diversity then it should stand on its policy and should make clients realize that a firm beholds on its workforce which is comprised of best trained people from different cultures for productive outcomes and workforce would never be let down on any condition. This drill would make a strong impression on the clients as well and people would ultimately learn to respect the integrity of a firm. There has to be a beginning to strongly condemn racial discrimination. The best is said by Jeanette Millard: "Addressing racism begins in earnest, when white people stop insisting, it wasn't about race!" DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVES: Ely and Thomas beautifully presented the pros and cons given by different theorists about gender and racial diversity in the workgroup. (Gutek, 1985, Cox, 1993) lifting up minorities like women and people of color in the workplace can bring positive outcomes because it satisfies them and therefore they produce tremendous results, whereas said Blalock (1957) that it can raise majority’s concern and can hurt men’s integrity. It is further emphasized that balancing workforce from both minorities and majorities does not have firm and concrete results, until they admit and accept that differences have nothing to do while achieving a goal (Morrison, 1992) Managers are advised to increase workforce diversity to improve work group effectiveness. It is also argued (Alice H. Eagly, Linda L. Carli (2003) on the behalf on women dominancy that gender diversity can fulfill the needs and demands of the upcoming challenges and would play better on places where men are considered as dominant players. Different diversity perspectives, categorized in three different classifications addressed by Ely and Thomas are: Integration and the Learning Perspective. Access and the Legitimacy Perspective Discrimination and the Fairness Perspective. All these perspectives are practically adopted in different firms and found to be quite successful. In my opinion, when we live in a multi cultural community like U.S itself, we also need to accept and embrace the differences positively. (Ely, Thomas, 2001) differences not only provide us different way of doing things and solutions to problems but it also provides us opportunity to learn how to face differences and tackle them productively. For example, bank in black community was running successfully because the workforce has diversity which enabled their clients to feel comfortable. Practically as mentioned in (Dass and Parker, 1999) and similarly in (Ely and Thomas, 2001) that if the Discrimination and Fairness Perspective would have been the adopted in Fuller Fenton, the outcomes would have been different. CONCLUSION: Fuller Fenton lacked in discrimination and fairness perspective which transformed the small incident into a gigantic crash. If this perspective wouldn’t have lacked or watched vigilantly then Dillon wouldn’t be replaced by a white. This was quite surprising in a firm who claims to manage workforce diversity efficiently. Jack knew this case before this incident happened and he should have taken action at that time. If Jack would have reacted well at the right time then Dillon who seems to be reasonable man would have let this small incident go unnoticed. I agree with (Dass and Parker, 1999) that there could be high internal and external pressures on the organizational management about managing workforce diversity. There is a serious concern shown that immigrants in U.S are acquiring more jobs then the whites. This situation is causing pressures on organizations that believe in diversity but couldn’t follow because of the growing external and internal pressures and especially in larger societies. (John D. DeLamater, 2006)Cultural Societies are more sensitive is larger societies with some specific power positions and some cultural identities have greater powers over certain issues like in Western society, Men as a workforce are more dominant then women and hold all major formal and informal positions in political and business area. Likewise, white are considered as a strong society then blacks and upper class and elites are more respected then lower or labor class. All these reality figures can be taken as a sign that racism or any discrimination cannot be eliminated completely. REFERENCES: Mark Bauerlein 2001, “Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906” Encounter Books, San Francisco. Robin J. Ely; David A. Thomas, 2001, “Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 229-273. Parshotam Dass, Barbara Parker, 1999, “Strategies for managing human resource diversity: From resistance to learning” Academy of Management Executive. Vol. 13. No. 2 Jeffrey C. Connor, (2000) “It wasn’t about Race or Was It?” Harvard Business Journal, September-October. Barry M. Goldman, Barbara A. Gutek, Jordan H. Stein and Kyle Lewis (2006), “Employment Discrimination in Organizations: Antecedents and Consequences” Journal of Management; 32; 786 Alice H. Eagly, Linda L. Carli (2003), “The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence” The Leadership Quarterly 14 (2003) 807–834 John D. DeLamater, (2006), “Handbook of social psychology”, Springer, Page no. 419 -432 Read More