Core Challenges of Managing Diversity in the Workplace - Coursework Example

Core challenges of managing diversity in the workplace Introduction: Managing human resources is synonymous with managing an organization. A corporation may have surplus resources of various kinds such as materials, money, machines and market; however, if it fails to have well-motivated human resources, its success is at stake. Thus managing human resources has been an integral part of managing business. So much so there is a devoted department looking after the matters related to human resources. Managing human resources is, however, fraught with certain difficulties. Of all the resources, it is the human resources which is subject to changes of behavior depending upon the circumstances, working conditions and so on. Thus, it is important to consider the behavioral aspects of human resources. As important factor that determines their behavior is their backgrounds, which are unique in several ways. Such uniqueness differentiates one from other; and hence the entire workforce becomes diverse in several respects. This essay addresses the issues arising from managing diverse workforce. To place the essay in a perspective, the following section explores the diverse characteristics of workforce. This essay would subsequently explore how best this diverse workforce could be managed. 1. Diverse workforce understood: There are several ways of defining diversity of labor force. In a simplest form, the diversity can be associated with the uniqueness of labor force - as every individual tends to exhibit behavior that is unique to the individual concerned. Ferris, Frink and Galang define diversity as, “.. any attribute that humans are likely to use to tell themselves, ‘that person is different from me” (Ferris, Frink and Galang, 1993, p. 42). In this case, individuals are taken as unit of analysis. Considering the number of labors employed by any organization, it is near impossible to address workforce by taking individuals as a category. This requires some aggregation, and the criteria adopted should reflect the diversity. While the individual differences are important, these authors go on to suggest that the larger factors such as race, sex, age, values, and cultural norms should be taken into account while understanding the diversity of workforce. Thus, Westerns workers become one category; whereas Asian workers become another category. Within Western society, the English workers are different from that of German and French Workers. Thus diversity of workforce can be understood in different ways depending upon the context and the analytical purpose. Within America, there is lots of diversity of workforce due to changes in the migration and other demographic factors. For instance, an estimate has placed that the proportion of workforce classified as Asian and others including Native Americans would increase by over 81 percent in 2005 over 1992. More specifically, the percentage share of Hispanics in the workforce is expected by over 64 percent and they would represent as much as 11 percent of the civilian workforce in 2005; an increase by three percentage points from 8percent in 1992. The percentage distribution of workforce between male and female reveal that the proportion of women is expected to be 48 percent by 2005 from 46 percent in 1994. Within women category, as much as two third of all single mothers are in the labor force (Fullerton, 1993, pp. 31-40). The profile of workforce is also undergoing changes due to demographic factors. For instance, the median age of the workforce in 1995 was 37.8 years and it is expected to rise to 40.5 years in 2005; largely due to aging of the baby-boon generation born between 1946 and 1964 (Fullerton, 1993, pp. 31-40). Thus there is diversity observed not only at the aggregate level of workforce, even within each category of workforce. The diversity poses considerable challenge to the managers of human resources. In particular, the management of human resources right from the stage of recruitment and selection to appraisal to promotion to retention, an organization would have a single policy. The policies address the workforce as single category but not as a separate category under which each of workers fall. In other words, the organization tends to bring about the similarity in the workplace because they have a single policy for each of these workers. Since individual workers exhibit different behavior at work, every organization has to have a well thought out plan for successfully managing the diverse workforce. While changes in the demographic factors had contributed to changing profile of workforce, there are also economic compulsions that make the workforce of an organization more diverse. For instance, the US based multinational corporations would like to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the globalization wave since the early 1990s. In particular, the most of developing countries opened up their economy that facilitated entry of many of the multinational corporations. These companies went in with their capital, but had to employ workers of the domestic economy. This coupled with relocation of some of their production units has given rise to an overwhelming proportion of workers being drawn from other countries. For the company on the whole, the labors have become diverse. This diversity is due to economic compulsions. Thus, diverse workforce of recent times is a product of a company’s reach to many other economies. There are economic consequences of such diversity. In an important study, Orlando (2000, pp. 164-177) found that the cultural diversity had contributed to improvement in productivity, return on equity and market performances. Diversity has potentials for making significant contributions to the overall company’s objective. Given the beneficial benefit of diversity, many organizations have increasingly emphasized diversity management. This has been given a shape in the form of diversity program. As a consequence, there are many actions taken by the companies – some of these actions are of compulsory and some are voluntary in nature. There are, however, certain barriers to diversity management such as prejudice and bias. These barriers could minimize the positive effects of diversity. Moreover, there are affirmative position that aims to reduce discrimination of workforce resulting from the prejudices and biases. To minimize the ill effects associated with this, it is important to provide training with a view to sensitize all employees as well as managers to the need to value differences, build self-esteem, and create a smooth functioning and healthy work ambience for the company’s diverse workforce (Dessler, 2003, p. 50-52).Companies have to evolve compulsory actions because of such legal imperatives. Accordingly, a company is expected to have certain human resource practices that are capable of blending a diverse workforce into a close-knit. 2. Interview with Managers: Companies would also like to exploit the potentials of diverse workforce. To figure out, how effectively companies manage diverse workforce, an interview was conducted with a manager of a leading multinational corporation. The following five major points emerged as strong strategies for managing workforce diversity at the global level: Committed leadership: From our interview with the manager, we realized that having a strong commitment from top leadership is very important for effective management of diverse workforce. As an organization strives based on the vision set out by its leadership, it is important that they articulate their vision that could be used as guides for recruitment. Diverse workforce requires somewhat unique solution that calls for change in the behavior and attitude. When the leaders take a proactive and become role models, it brings about the required change amongst the middle order, who have direct contact with the workforce. Assess the situation: Moreover the leaders should be monitoring how middle management manages workforce diversity. While leadership commitment is a precondition for the successful management, there is a need to ascertain the progress made in diversity management. While secondary information based on employment record would reveal the current state of affairs related to diversity management, a company has to periodically administer a survey amongst its workers. The survey is of attitudinal in nature in the sent it has to measure the current attitudes and perceptions toward different cultural groups or genders or age groups or nationality and so on. Several tools can be employed such as attitude measurement scales, employee evaluation, focus group discussions and so on. These surveys should be conducted in such a way so as to capture how well the employees with diverse backgrounds feel about working in the organization. If possible, top leaders could discuss problems faced by employees in the form of focus group discussions and so on. Provide diversity training and education: Since the diversity of workforce would mean different backgrounds, it is important to sensitize the managers to appreciate multi-cultural contexts of managing human resources. This is possible only and if only the managers of human resources have a good understanding of various societies and ethos of a country, wherefrom the human resources are drawn. This would go a long way in reducing the prejudices and biases. To achieve this, a company could have various training and education program for its human resource managers. Change culture and management system: When an organization is governed by a set value system and norms for the conduct of individual as well as the conduct of business, a pattern of behavior within an organization would emerge. This pattern is the culture of that organization. By defining the change required, the value system of the organization undergoes change. Along with this, management system also changes. As part of successful management of diverse workforce, it is important that an organization redefines its corporate culture. Evaluate the diversity program: It is imperative that every organization has the diversity program. Diversity program should not be rhetoric or just lip services. When an employee start noticing the gap between lip services and reality, he or she starts feeling the contradictions in human relations management practices of a given organization and becomes suspicious of the cultural practices. Unable to decide as to what to do next, the particular employee gets confused. This reduces employee motivation and commitment, and contribution to organization. In order to ensure that diverse workforce is happier lot, management has to time and again evaluate its diversity program. Often employees’ attitude survey would indicate the improvement for successfully managing the diverse workforce. Conclusion: To conclude, there are potential gains associated with diverse workforce. If managed properly, these gains could be translated into more return on equity. There are companies like Toyota, GE that have created wealth to its shareholders at home by successfully managing its diverse workforce globally. Questionnaire General: 1. Does your organization have diverse workforce? Yes, our organization has employees from various countries with a good mixture of gender. 2. Do you believe that having workforce diversity is good for organization? As it has been proved by academic research, we strongly believe that there is one to one relationship between profitability and workforce diversity. 3. Have you faced any internal problem because of your diverse workforce? Often our middle managers face problems dealing with workforce, who have different cultural background. 4. Do you receive complaints from your customers that could be attributed to diverse workforce? Not exactly. In fact, it is an asset for our organization. 5. Do you think that MNCs should provide equal employment opportunities for all irrespective of their socio cultural backgrounds? So long as MNC want to tap global market, it is equally important to have diverse workforce. Managing diverse workforce: 1. What are the problems do you come across while dealing with employees of different backgrounds? Response: We believe that having diverse workforce is an advantage rather than a cost and this has been our philosophy in dealing with employees from diverse backgrounds. The problem is however at the bottom level and it is middle level managers often face problems in dealing with diverse workforce. As an employee’s behavior is conditioned by socio cultural backgrounds, we conduct a number of training programs to our middle line managers with a view to sensitize them on the importance of having workforce diversity. 2. How do you manage diversity? Response: It is our philosophy that we need to provide equal opportunities for all irrespective of their backgrounds. This finds expression in our employment policies and has been made available for public in our website. 3. What about leadership’s commitment? Response: I fully agree that leadership commitment is a precondition for the successful management of diverse workforce. They constantly ascertain the progress made in diversity management by checking secondary information based on employment record and periodically administering a survey amongst our employees. 4. How do you ensure effective management of workforce diversity? Response: This is an important question that is linked to our philosophy. Keeping this in view, we have defined our organization culture such that mutual respects for others have to prevail. It is to be practiced not only while dealing with peers but also with bosses and subordinates. 5. Do you think every organization should have diversity program? Response: Fully agreed. It is not just having diversity program but ensuring how it is put into work. Diversity program should not be rhetoric or just lip services. When an employee start noticing the gap between lip services and reality, he or she starts feeling the contradictions in human relations management practices of a given organization and becomes suspicious of the cultural practices. References Cox, T., Cultural Diversity in Organizations: Theory, Research and Practice, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1993. Denison, D. Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness, New York: John Wiley, 1990. Dessler, G., Human Resource Management (9th edn.), New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 2003. Ferris, G., Frink, D., and Galang, M.C., “Diversity in the Workplace: The Human Resources Challenge”, Human Resource Planning, 16 (1), 1993. Fullerton, H., “Another Look at the Labor Force”, Monthly Labor Review, November,1993. Orlando, R., “Racial Diversity, Business Strategy, and Firm Performance: A Resource Based View”, Academy of Management Journal, 43 (2), 2000. Read More