Managing Diversity at Workplace - Essay Example

Managing diversity Introduction Managing workforce diversity can be defined as "planning and implementing organizational systems and practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized while its potential disadvantages are minimized" (Cox, 1997). Further it is a process in which individuals, processes, practices and whole organizations are transformed from their current position to a new desired position. It has three stages – design; planning; and implementation. As much as organizations differ in their internal leadership and cultural set up the theoretical approaches to change also differ. For instance there are entrepreneurial, bureaucratic and autocratic organizations or/and leadership styles. They need equally diverse and effective theoretical approaches for diversity management. Multicultural organizations such as in those of European countries have been the results of an evolutionary process of managing diversity of the workforce. The different types of individual diversity such as age, gender and ethnic origin will lead to such job performance, satisfaction and vertical mobility of employees within the organization (Jayne, & Dipboye, 2004). However the diversity management has affected the organizational and individual levels of performance depending on the part-time employees’ contribution versus the full time employees’ efficiency to the overall growth of the organization. Analysis Organizational diversity management has become a very important aspect in the modern day management practice. Diversity is desirable when everything else has failed to ensure the continuous survival of the business. However diversity in itself might not be desirable when the degree of resistance to differ become stronger because when resistance gathers momentum that in itself is an indicator of the existence of other solutions. If organizational change were focused on improving critical success factors related to financial management, Human Resource Management (HRM), employee relations, supply chain management, quality management, marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR), then the organization would have to face considerable resistance. In the first instance managing workforce diversity is a significant important element in organizations while flexibility and creativity are considered as keys to compete successfully in the business environment. It is all the more difficult to manage the process of diversity smoothly because employees depending on their attitude to change would not remain silent. Thus as much as the active management of the diverse process involves attitudinal changes, there are predefined objectives that would require far reaching changes at each level before a final changes brought about (Kaiser, 2008)Albert Breton (Author) › Visit Amazons Albert Breton Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central . Organizational diversity management also requires a far greater commitment on the part of management to initiate diversity. However once it is initiated the degree of participation by other employees alone would determine the success or the failure of the diversity program. Thus organizational cultural and management theories have evolved overtime with particular emphasis on the diversity management process of employees in general. Despite this theoretical postulate fitting in to autocratic and bureaucratic organizational structures and leadership styles, there is a still greater doubt about entrepreneurial organizations and leaderships accepting such diversity. In a business organization where an entrepreneurial leadership style prevails, diversity management process becomes much easier because motivation of the workforce would be determined by flexibility in working hours. Along with flexibility comes the necessity for part time work which is essentially characterized by compulsions to manage with care about cash flow. There has been a perceptive increase in organizational diversity related methodology in the recent past. For instance the psychological aspect of methodology was ignored in the past. Despite an ever increasing interest in the psychology of resistance to diversity in managing workforce by subordinates at different levels of the organization, very few critical works have come out on the subject. A very recent perspective on workforce and time diversity identifies some critical success factors as the essential elements on which organizational workforce diversity must be focused so that methods would not be so divergent. Pearce and Robinson argue that workforce diversity has a very significant impact on the modern business organization because labor is not only provided by humans unlike other factors of production but also is subject to changing demographic trends such as a rise or a fall in the population. Therefore changing trends in workforce could affect the business organization’s activities in a number of ways. Unlike other markets employees tend to influence corporate decisions in a very strange way. For instance the substitution effect between labor and capital in industry can be far more complex than can be imagined. In other words the authors convincingly argue that this particular external environmental factor influences the size of the organization to a greater extent. The resultant outcome is that given the way in which workforce operates according to demand and supply forces, the equilibrium level is determined by trade unions to a certain extent. In other words the subsiding trade union powers have empowered managers to hire labor on part time and more flexible bases. It’s the big business organization that is able to deal with such diverse workforce by way of retraining and job placement rather than the smaller ones. In order to set up and maintain well manned skills training & development (T&D) departments within the organization, a lot of resources have to be committed. That’s why small business is beset with such perennial problems like absenteeism, redundancy and lower productivity. However organizational culture is essentially connected with diversity. Despite the above mentioned positive outcomes there are some negative ones as well. In the first instance though employees are sought to be motivated with a degree of freedom for decision making in such areas as quality improvement, there is very little order in managing the various departments. As for the assumption of responsibility and exercise of power, there is still much less order in the delegation of such powers and responsibility from the senior management to the part time subordinate staff. Thus responsibility for decision making has suffered a reversal. It’s clear that most of the responsibility for important decisions rests with the top management to a lesser extent with the full time staff. Some organizations lack proper coordination and direction in their diversity management related functions. International HRM practices that are associated with culturally diverse staff have been fully implemented at modern organizations. Part time workers can be hired with much less commitment financially. Most of these part timers are college undergraduates from foreign countries. Internationally accepted HRM practices require a change at the institutional level. Organizations need to adopt some such diverse practices as Training & Development, skills reorientation, job enrichment and acculturation (or cultural assimilation) to retain the staff (Knoth, 2006). Thus business organizations in EU have adopted some of these diverse practices though the extent to which they have been able to adopt them is questionable. Organizations have been successful in its efforts to identify and adopt leadership and motivation related programs of reducing redundancies and absenteeism of the workforce (Aretz, & Hansen, 2002). These programs are essentially connected part time flexible schedules of work. While companies have made considerable profits some diversity programs have been noticed to produce failures as well. Managing diversity has received much wider attention in the organizational management context while the diverse process associated with development and management in the organization’s context has received much less attention due to a host of difficulties that are necessarily associated with process dynamics including control and integration problems. For instance management has often been confronted by diverse and complex problems like skills integration and special education. A process change effort that specifically targets these elements in the process of transformation has invariably to confront an uphill task. Virtually such changes need to be focused on with a parallel analysis of causative agents that independently and interdependently operate to achieve change. Currently available literature on the change process and the associated organizational diversity process is limited in extent and at times is woefully inadequate to establish essential metrics for an in-depth evaluation though. For instance in respect of diversity management process, the skills integration process has received much less attention and thus the subsequent inadequacies involving causality factors and metrics have to be identified and addressed to achieve a coherent methodology (Page, 2007). Some organizations have made a very good attempt to delineate these causal and resultant correlated outcomes with a view to integrating policy alternatives in design, planning and implementation in diversity management. However the extent to which such efforts have succeeded has to be seen in the light of recent research in this sphere. Diversity management in the European countries in particular has been studied with specific focus on its flexibility and cash flow management convenience as a neoliberal concept. This modernity related trend has acquired a more formal dimension of considerable magnitude owing to the implications arising from such process change in organizational settings. Recent research on endogenous factor influences on workforce diversity within organizational environments as in the Netherlands has identified the existence of a cluster of variables that interact within the organizational environment to produce unanticipated for outcomes. In the first place they are purely determined by context-centric factors such as the impact of government policy and coordinated response of the management to integration related problems. Secondly they are directly associated with skills integration rather than policy initiatives at the design level. Finally such variables as employee performance and achievements have a direct impact on the diversity related outcomes. As a corollary of the above three variables, the subsequent government policy impact on the management’s freedom to initiate change has been taken to a higher level of analysis by researchers so that process change outcomes and learning outcomes become synonymous in the practical context of the organizational environment. But nonetheless a few recent research efforts have gone so far as to include the impact analysis of a host of exogenous variables including the direct impact of the government policy in an otherwise indeterminate organizational context (Alexandra, et al 2006). Indeed this impact along with its implications for resource planning, control and mobility has inevitably influenced the thinking on the part of the management as to how to realign organizational policy with the government policy in an effort to achieve organization’s own objectives. Other exogenous environmental influences – e.g. societal setting, economic impact and competitive environment - have also been considered to present a more comprehensive outline of the diverse management study. Diversity management associated with organizational workforce management and policy implementation needs to be addressed from a number of viewpoints. Organizations’ own diversity process in the business environment has been initiated with a view to achieving collateral synergies by way of efficiency in employee performance and Human Resource planning, control and mobility among others. Though integration of skills and other immediate variables into the process was planned for initially, some structural and otherwise unanticipated for constraints began to emerge in the process (Rasmussen, Lind, & Visser, 2004). While this managing workforce diversity in the organization was partially successful owing to the commitment of the staff to undertake some special commitments, there were some unforeseen developments too. Workforce management and change require a considerable amount of HR planning, control and mobility. This dynamic process related problem was noticed to be one of the main hurdles at organization’s process change effort and the response on the part of the management and the staff revolved around the immediate and primary categorization of skills of the staff to integrate into the specificities. Training & Development (T&D) of the staff needed special attention to go along with the special education skills requirement though (Walck, 1995). The problem was further exacerbated by a lack of other resource planning constraints encountered in the process of change. For instance while the policy initiative was in complete conformance with the planned for outcomes, there was very little structural support to bear the brunt of process change in the core curriculum. Indeed the integration process was successful to a certain extent when the subsequent HR planning and integration of skills into the overall plan were factored into the equation. As the critics points out a parallel analysis of these causative agents need to be undertaken in view of the fact that most organizations didn’t have a fully-fledged complement of HR resources and other non-HR resources to go along with the process change initiative. Thus the conceptual theoretical construct of complementarity holds good to a certain extent in this analysis. Notwithstanding the above line of arguments, there is a paradigm of diversity in workforce management and the organizational environment brought on by a proactive response by the management and the staff in the light of initiatives undertaken in response to outcomes directly related to the diversity (Cox, 1991). This is none so well obvious than in the outcome related to the design and implementation phases of the diversity programs at organizations. For instance organizations in EU countries are focused on flexible and adaptable working arrangements to meet customer demands. Workforce heterogeneity will promote creativity and flexibility to provide better solutions to organizational problems by way of efficient to operations in the business environment. Effective diversity management would lead to not only attract the best talented employees but also save time and money while recruiting and resigning employees (Dick, 2003). Thus diversity workforce would have been affecting to the increasing demand for the services from diverse customer base. When addressing the diversity issues at organizational level the following questions must be considered– what policies and practices within the organizational context have an impact on different groups of employees? ; what type of organizational changes should be made to meet the customer needs of a diverse workforce? ; and can organizations be positioned to meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century?. Despite the good management practices on diversity, effectiveness of the workforce diversity management depends on the individual capabilities, values and attitudes. Thus diversity-sensitive perspectives will support the management to manage diverse workforce environments effectively only if such factors are taken care of (Fine, 1980). Managing workforce diversity mainly focuses on maximizing the ability of all levels of employees towards achieving the organizational goals. Therefore managing workforce diversity considered as business necessity, because it is much more acknowledges that workforce must work for everyone despite the fact that gender, race, color, national origin and so on. There will be some negative consequences of ignoring diversity in the organizational context such as those related to cost, time, money, and efficiency (Brownell, 2003). For instance when employees have limited language skills there should be a supportive process and good management practices adopted by the managers and supervisors for working with a multicultural and diverse staff. Managers’ styles keep on changing with time and circumstances. Thus it’s very rare to see organizations being run strictly in accordance with the textbook theory. Big business organizations which have successfully created global value brands have all one thing in common, viz. they all strive hard to create value to the customer by focusing on managing diversity within the workplace with service quality plus cost cutting as the principal goals. In the first instance organizations focused on diverse management practices by building up customer-centric service quality points. Quality points aren’t physical positions but some service related structural focal points where employees are positioned to meet appropriate demands of customers with a near approximation to perfection (Cox, 2001) . Indeed it’s true that perfection doesn’t exist in the provision of either a good or a service. But nevertheless perfection in itself is a near approximation or a relative standard of reference for the diverse workforce management to achieve in the long run. Thus diverse workforce management objectives are essentially the basis on which many European organizations in particular place emphasis now. During the last few years the European countries have noticed a variety of business deals including those high profile acquisitions and mergers. Against this backdrop of ever increasing competition, it’s imperative for businesses in EU countries to initiate some far reaching changes in its workforce management sphere (Fleetwood, 2007). Cutting into existing niche market segments has become too fashionable today because many of those organizations that venture into new market segments do so without paying much attention to the consequences of the unfolding scenario of competition. Such stiff completion requires cost cutting effective and futuristic diversity management programs. This is none so more apparent than in the international HRM practices now being adopted to manage culturally diverse workforces. Especially businesses in EU countries had a very good outlook in managing its diverse workforce under different circumstances. It would inevitably focus attention on these modern diverse workforce practices to align the inner organizational practices and structures with the current international trends in HRM. Conclusion Workforce diversity management has been one of the most discussed topics in the modern business world. Managing diverse workforce and work schedules effectively has become a central issue in not only changing structures, people, processes and organizations but also the very methodology of constructing modelsKatherine Catlin (Author) › Visit Amazons Katherine Catlin Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central . Whether it is a bureaucratic, autocratic, democratic or entrepreneurial organizational and management structure, the ultimate acceptance or rejection of diversity management programs depends on how best mangers are able to persuade their subordinates to accept diversity practices such as creativity and flexibility because it is essential for long term survival of the organization. However subordinates might resist such diverse practices not because they do not like them but because power relations cannot be predicted accurately. Stereotypical tendencies among fellow employees in their respective cultural diverse organizational environments have been noticed in earlier studies on the subject and this study is particularly focused on the causes, implications and consequences of this tendentious behavioral paradigm to a greater extent though it doesn’t altogether fail to examine alternate hypotheses on the subject as well. This typical tendentious attitudinal perspective acquires dimensional latitude in cultural and environmental determinants. The European countries were perceived by their local co-workers as creative and flexible than the other countries. On the other hand there was an agreement in opinion between the European viewpoints on such things as diversity, modesty, caution and industriousness. REFERENCES 01. Alexandra, K, Frank D. & Erin, K. ‘Best Practices or Best Guesses?: Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 71, 2006, pp. 589–617. 02. Aretz, H. J. & Hansen, K. Diversity and Diversity Management in Companies - An analysis of systems theory perspective, Munster, 2002. 03. Brownell, J. ‘Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse Organizations’, Listening Professional, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2003, pp. 5-25. 04. Cox, T. Developing Competency to Manage Diversity: Readings, Cases & Activities. › Visit Amazons Taylor Cox PageFind all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Berrett-Koehler Publishers, California, 1997. 05. Cox Jr, T. Creating the Multicultural Organization: A Strategy for Capturing the Power of Diversity. Jossey-Bass, California, 2001. 06. Cox, Jr, T. ‘The Multicultural Organization’, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 1991, pp. 34-47. 07. Dick, P. ‘Organizational efforts to manage diversity: do they really work?’, Individual Diversity and Psychology in Organizations, 2003, pp. 131-148. 08. Fine, M. G. ‘Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field’, Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 33, Issue 4, 1980, pp. 485-502. 09. Fleetwood, S. why work life balance now?, international journal of human resource management, Vol.18, issue 3, 2007, pp. 351 – 360. 10. Jayne, M.E.A. & Dipboye, R. L. ‘Leveraging diversity to improve business performance: re-search findings and recommendations for organizations’, Human Resource Management, Vol. 04, Issue 04, 2004, pp. 409-424. 11. Kaiser, W. Diversity Management - A new management culture of diversity - a new image of libraries, Simon Bibliothekswissen. Berlin, 2008. 12. Knoth, A. Managing Diversity - sketches a theory of culture to develop the potential of human diversity in organizations, Tönning, Der Andere Verlag, 2006. 13. Page, S. The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton University Press, New jersey, 2007. 14. Rasmussen, E, Lind, J. & Visser, J. divergence in part time work in New Zealand, the Netherlands and Denmark, British journal of industrial relations, Vol. 42, Issue 4, 2004, pp. 637 658. 15. Walck, C. L. ‘Editors introduction: Diverse approaches to managing diversity’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 31, 1995, pp. 119-123. Read More