Diversity Management Sample Assignment

Executive Summary

Introduction

The concept of Diversity management is the buzzword in today’s organizations. The process of globalization has given rise to workforce diversity as an important component of organizations, to which they have to respond in a way by managing diversity within the workplace to get maximum benefits out of it (Lauring, 2012). Managing diversity is important not just because it results in organizational effectiveness; it also helps in maintaining market share, goodwill and ultimately profitability. There are many studies that contradict the subject i.e. the essence and necessity of managing diversity at workplace. Some collectives think that it is not important to manage diversity at workplace because it won’t affect the functioning of the business and business can do without it, while some think that it is inevitable in today’s scenario for the organizational success (Mayer, Warr & Zhao, 2018). In this case, where there are more advantages than negatives of diversity management in business which is also evident in case of CERA; for guiding the staff members in correct direction, we should focus on the rationale on which businesses adopt diversity management as an inevitable practice. This study will explain the reasons of essence for the concept of diversity management for an organization and the results it can achieve through its application.

Diversity Management (DM)

As already mentioned, businesses today cannot work without managing the diverse workforce available due to globalization. The process contributes significantly to the progress of business, helps in establishing a talented pool of employees; provide competitive edge along with increasing profit share of the business (Bebbington & Özbilgin, 2013). We can define the term as ‘a process which is targeted towards creating and maintaining such a work climate which is conducive and appreciate the differences of various employees working together in the organization’. As far as the literature on the subject is concerned, major focus has been on factors such as openness in the workplace, company culture, policies of HRM in business, external and internal business environment, and the scope of business to challenges of diversity, expectations, need of diversity management and rewards, issues related to the practice of diversity management and its consequences. Experts and field researchers have given importance to the positive management of diversity in business administration, for which the basic logic and argument presented is that, diversity in staff members, if administered properly, can make a path for the establishment of such work team of members who would be more dedicated towards the organizational mission and vision, better delighted with work, participative and motivated in contributing towards the achievement of organizational goals.

Rationale for Diversity Management

The process and practice of diversity management have gained more importance now-a-days due to the requirement of dealing with the demographically diverse employees who are imparted with so much talent that is derived from various social, cultural, religious, national, economic backgrounds (Amaram, 2011). Many experts try to oppose this importance and process of diversity management, but they have not been able to deteriorate the supporters of the successful process. The supporters argue that no business can be successful in today’s globalized economy without hiring globally diverse workforce and binge on the huge opportunities available due to world liberalization and globalization. More than this, certain reasons for businesses adopting diversity would be the fact which says that it becomes important to manage diversity in businesses with the emergence of shifting demographic components (Lauring, 2012). Different organizations have achieved different results by applying various practices of diversity management. Many experts have stated the need for some more development in the theory of the concept DM. These logics state that the concept of DM is getting popular in the economic world slowly and steadily due to its important role and the rising need to manage varied talent in the businesses that differ in origins of culture, region or ideologies (Ozgen, Nijkamp & Poot, 2015). It should be noted that the international companies should primarily focus on bringing about unity and consistency within the team that is diverse in different terms and make them contribute in the procedure of business development.

Considering the business situation of CERA, it states that Susumu has been determined to build a systematic recruitment process which would apply to all potential individuals, regardless of their caste, ethnicity, culture or economic relevance (Bond & Haynes, 2014). This case proves the important rationale behind the adoption of DM in businesses. Here, Susumu is in favour of this standardized approach for improving the recruitment policy and attract the right candidates for the company; there are some group of people who oppose the opinion. Example of Miriam, who is ready to back the opinion of implementing recruitment procedure based on Diversity management so as to provide a better talented pool of employees to the company who can cross the hurdles of standard protocols and reach the post available in CERA that is deserved by them. If this is to be considered, experts state that such policy of recruitment that is homogenized can be harmful for the company’s strategy, because then the process of recruitment will require to be directed according to the personal differences of candidates and this customization is the only way to attract right person from this large pool of talent in the world market. Miriam identifies the process of DM and states the future prospects of the same, to be a procedure which should be aligned with the CERA’s vision and goals in order to be successful. And if this alignment is achieved, then the strategy of diversity and inclusion will contribute to a great positive achievement for future of organization. This reasoning given by Miriam needs a reliable support from valid sources which would contribute in persuading Mark French to recognize the importance of establishing diversity management practices as a strategic policy at CERA Company.

Appropriate and strong logics and reasons need to be provided in order to convince French for adopting diversity management in CERA. One of the articles based on the subject DM written by Kreitz (2007) provides the importance of such need stating the example of agricultural field where the agriculturalists have identified the worth of biological differences in this century and the flexibility and sophistication it provides to the ecosystems and networks. Further it states that such model needs to be implemented in the human processes, specifically to explain the formation and structure of the organizations and their functionality. This suggests that workforce diversity is important to draw out flexibility and resilience in the organization. In order to get such advantages of maintaining a diverse workplace, CERA and its management will have to give importance on developing DM procedures and approaches. The relationship between workers and management becomes strong due to the presence of diversity at workplace, not just flexibility. It is evident from the ecological process mentioned by the author mentioned earlier that, solo-managing can harm diversity in the workplace just like solo-cropping does to biological differences. Hence, it proves that there is a requirement of making a perception shift from solo-managing to diversity management as this is the demand of the global economy. The organization can maintain sustainability in the competition only through this process of DM.

Those people who oppose the process of diversity management present their view that the whole procedure of DM is dependent on some incorrect theories, ideas and principles. They state that basic problem which is instilled in the beginning or the method of DM has been the idea that the diversity existing due to culture and demographics can be identified and managed very easily. The opposing groups mention that it is not so easy to define the culture and their cultural variations in the process. Furthermore, it is mentioned that it is very tough to define the vague factors of culture and related terms. Thomas and Peterson (2017) state that the terms such as national culture, merger and deviations of different cultures, company culture are all very complex processes and could not be properly understood till date. Due to this reason, the complete process of diversity management turns void which no reason or logic established with it. But these arguments can be negated from the viewpoint of social and geographical point of view. It has been noted that the term culture is not vague but has been recognized and defined by numerous experts and scholars. This point towards the fact that the similarity identified in various cultures is the internal consistency of the social arrangement within (Martin, 2014). Before, the concept of culture was limited only to the relevance of nations and ethnic differences, but now complete social system is considered to attribute the differences for example, the westernization culture, customer-centred company culture. All these components are the indicators of the element that concept of culture is definable and diversity can be recognized in a similar fashion. Now, as these two terms are in real, the management of cultural diversity becomes very important in order to get competitive advantage and sustain globalization. The differences of individuals embrace them with different talents that they learn from their origins such as nationality, religion, region, experience etc. Combining all such experiences at one place will lead to a collection of intellect and talent which would contribute towards the success of the organization and achievement of global leadership vision.

It is important to explain Mark French, the fact that application of diversity management is not essential only in the functions and operations of the organization but it is to be made mandatory in the recruitment and selection procedure of the company to place right person for the positions in CERA and build on a talented pool of employees. Organizations should pay attention to managing cultural diversity at workplace through the function of personnel management as it has become one of the most important assets of business. Further, HR is considered to be the strategic partner of business in today’s world, so this can be implemented successfully through the department. It has been identified by Kossek (2009) that workplace diversity denotes the fact that individuals are different in various manners which may be visible or sometimes not, such as gender, age, social status, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, religion or personality. This differences should be recognized by the personnel department at CERA so as to understand that the process of recruitment and selection, if not addressed to diversity, would not attract and fulfil the requirements of the intellectual individuals who come from various races, religion, nations and societies which would cause a loss to CERA the opportunity of enhancing the quality of its workforce via the collection of this vast talented individuals. While the vision of CERA is to achieve a global position in the market as a leader in the field, it becomes very important for the organization to develop policies for the HR department relevant to recruitment and selection in order to address the different needs of diverse candidates who belong to various cultures, economic, racial and national background. It should be noted by the committee of recruitment and selection in CERA that the increased pace of globalization in the world needs better communication amongst people across diverse cultures. No one can sustain in isolated climate. The world has turned into a global village removing the barriers of boundaries through better transportation and communication. Every business is in the race of becoming a leader in this globe. If this is the aim of CERA i.e. to make a presence worldwide, it will have to identify the demanding environment of globalization related to the diverse work culture and hence, management of diverse employees via the application of proper DM approaches and processes.

Recommendations

The benefits which diversity management can really offer to CERA should support the business rationale for the same. It is a noted fact that diversity is very critical for the health of an organization in this century where innovation and flexibility are the elements providing competitiveness. This should be taken into consideration by Mark French and the authorities of CERA. Therefore, this gives rise to the need of promoting diversity management as a strategic technique of getting effectiveness and success in long term for the company. The authorities of CERA should adopt the process of assimilating diversity management in its vision and strategic mission so as to guarantee the success and increase in profitability. It should also resort to establish such processes which would be useful in educating the workforce of the company about the concept of diversity and its challenges, also including the matters of laws and rules for diversity management (Ali, Metz & Kulik, 2015). The HR function of CERA should develop itself into an effective department to face the competition with regards to recruitment and selection because it is rightly said that diversity recruitment is not only the correct thing but a very smart action to implement. Further, I can recommend to the management and authorities of the organization to reward the diversity at workplace to promote it and make a flat structure of hierarchy in the company and an open and flexible work climate to foster the growth and progress of diversity management approaches. All these practices are highly beneficial in order to gain a competitive edge for CERA. These practices directly contribute to the organization’s performance and productivity. Hence, CERA must embrace the policy of diversity management and enhance the quality of its workforce.

Conclusion

The subject of managing diversity at workplace has both, supporters as well as opposition in the field. The essence of diversity management is very clear to the practitioners; still, many have contradictions towards its meaning. They assume that the foundation on which the concept of diversity management is laid is not strong. Culture cannot be defined clearly in order to identify the diversities amongst the employees. While some experts consider DM to be an inevitable part of this generation organizations in order to survive and manage their position in the global market. Hence, for CERA, it is important that we concentrate more on the reasoning provided in favour of the subject matter of diversity management rather on its oppositions. If diverse employees are managed properly, their differences embraced appropriately and respected in the organization, it can contribute towards enriched workforce composition for the organization and promote innovation and profitability for the same (Hee-Jung Lim, 2010). It has been discussed that, the shifting times demand the approach of solo-managing to shift to multiple/diversity-management. If done well, the organization can sustain and compete in this changing globalized world. The business rationale for diversity management proves the importance and need of diversity management and how it is the need of the hour. It hence, helps in convincing the management and Mark French to adopt the practices of diversity management at workplace and enhance the efficiency of the workforce.

References

Ali, M., Metz, I., & Kulik, C. (2015). Retaining a diverse workforce: the impact of gender-focused human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal, 25(4), 580-599. doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12079

Amaram, D. (2011). Cultural Diversity: Implications For Workplace Management. Journal Of Diversity Management (JDM), 2(4), 1. doi: 10.19030/jdm.v2i4.5017

Bebbington, D., & Özbilgin, M. (2013). The paradox of diversity in leadership and leadership for diversity. Management International, 17, 14. doi: 10.7202/1015808ar

Bond, M., & Haynes, M. (2014). Workplace Diversity: A Social-Ecological Framework and Policy Implications. Social Issues And Policy Review, 8(1), 167-201. doi: 10.1111/sipr.12005

Hee-Jung Lim. (2010). The current status of diversity management and the effect of diversity management on organizational performance. Productivity Review, 24(3), 181-217. doi: 10.15843/kpapr.24.3.201009.181

Lauring, J. (2012). International Diversity Management: Global Ideals and Local Responses. British Journal Of Management, 24(2), 211-224. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00798.x

Martin, G. (2014). The Effects Of Cultural Diversity In The Workplace. Journal Of Diversity Management (JDM), 9(2), 89. doi: 10.19030/jdm.v9i2.8974

Mayer, R., Warr, R., & Zhao, J. (2018). Do Pro-Diversity Policies Improve Corporate Innovation?. Financial Management, 2(1). doi: 10.1111/fima.12205

Ozgen, C., Nijkamp, P., & Poot, J. (2015). The elusive effects of workplace diversity on innovation. Papers In Regional Science, 96, S29-S49. doi: 10.1111/pirs.12176