HR Assignment Help Online Study writing analysis:: Managing diversity and equal opportunity in work place
Questions Asked??
How to Manage Diversity and Equal Opportunity in an organization??
Solution the question frames is::
What is the basic relationship between diversity and opportunity? Are we referring to any business benefits? Would we have clarity when we start looking at different aspects of managing diversity and equal opportunity? Diversity is a word which carries a lot of weight in itself. The word Diversity is very diverse as it suggests and that draws every conclusion attached to it to be very phenomenal. We are looking into managing diversity and equal opportunity which is related to employment and employees. So the definition could be “Treating every single individual as Clients, Customers and Employees (Diversity at work 2012).
There could be a lot of points around saying every other Business treats their Employees as Customers and Customers as Individuals however the question still lies unanswered around the basic point which is how many businesses consider their age, colour, economic status, ethnicity, nationality, religious beliefs, family status, disability, working status. Diversity can include embracing various differences like Qualifications, cultural difference, language differences and work experience. Considering all the above factors diversity can be promoted on the right basis. One of the recent reports of Trade and Industry set its driving principle as “Prosperity for everyone”. It proved that by employing more women, older people, people with differences in skill sets, educational qualifications, national differences recruitment options would never fall short.
This belief has been supported by most of the World’s Organizations by emphasizing the need for diverse efforts to facilitate inviting newer perspectives, opportunities, ideas, problem solving techniques by creating a respectful environment to work in.
The World is changing at a faster pace and so are the employers and employees. In order to create and promote diversity in the work place the Employers have to think as to “how are their Organizations shaping up? How do they look like for someone who view or hear their ideologies for the first time?” We have seen that Diversity has a broader sense of understanding and application. It is broader in such a way that the qualities differ from person to person however the other people might have some other qualities with the same importance. How can diversity be managed at a work place? Are there any theories or rules behind managing it when it comes to work place? Organizational practices and rules should be looked at in detail to remove the barriers affecting diversity at a work place (Diversity at work 2012).
Organizations should have rules which can value and provide tremendous benefits to work place environment in enhancing attributes like “thinking out of the box, taking initiatives, providing support and good team work ability” by creating a greater sense of understanding and support. We can consider Loden model of managing diversity.
Dimensions of Diversity
The dimensions in the inner circle vary from the dimensions in the outer circle. The dimensions in the inner circle are called as the primary dimensions and the dimensions in the outer circle are called as the secondary dimensions. The diversity circle consists of 3 types of diversities like social diversity which deals with ethics and age, Informational diversity which deals with organizational differences like education and role or level of work and value diversity like psychological differences like personal attitude and any kinds of differences. Though they are different but still these dimensions influence one another and the dominance of these factors is not static but dynamic. The secondary dimensions are malleable in nature and they are believed to change over a period of time. With the factors listed above diversity can be explained as a combination of various items defined by their nature, similarities and differences ((Diversity at work 2012).
How is diversity managed? Do Legislative laws have a role to play? There were several laws in Britain which came up in the 70’s known as equality laws. Though the equal opportunity laws gained a lot of importance in the 90’s leading a lot of Organizations declaring themselves being committed to equal opportunity laws legislation was still not known as the main driver in managing diversity. Despite the equal opportunity laws and commitment shown by the Organizations differences still persisted. This was proved by the gaps in pays with classifications under disability and ethnicity. It is sometimes believed that diversity does not influence a small group or people but has a greater say on the directly. Certain Organizational processes which diversity influences are motivational, interaction, team work and learning abilities. This would have a direct influence on the management. Though these factors are diverse it is crucial for the Management to ensure that all the groups are equally and driven towards achieving the common objective of the Organization (Cockburn 1991).
Let us look into the effective ways of managing diversity with equal opportunity. Many employment surveys have given significant contributions in terms of letting the world know about equality as 64% of survey companies had policies on equal opportunities. There are a lot of evidences to suggest that equal opportunity players have outperformed the companies with lower levels of awareness in diversity. It has been evident that growing and progressive Organizations have realised the importance and laid their emphasis on diversity and competitiveness. They would look at equal opportunities with a considerable cost. Diversity as a driver serves as the main force where as equal opportunity is the body which sets and allows it to run (DTI 2010).
There is another significant factor which is involved here in managing diversity and equal opportunity which is Discrimination and law. There is a lot of evidence that the legislative approach to equal opportunities has not treated everyone equal, it has not shown equal opportunities to everyone in the same way. There are a lot of examples in the businesses of UK like the higher positions in the UK have not really seen a lot of Women over the past few years. There has been a constant decline from 65% to 56% in the senior positions being occupied by women in the past few years. There have been a lot of arguments that equality opportunity processes do not support the importance of diversity which would offer organizational benefits (Diversity at work 2010).
There are some significant differences between Equal Opportunities and Diversity Management.
Diversity Management is internally driven where as Equal opportunities is externally driven.
Diversity Management implements a strategic approach where as Equal opportunities implements an operational approach
Diversity approach incurs the cost involved in the process or the Organization where as the Equal opportunities approach costs money to implement any process in the Organization.
The main difference is that diversity is individual focussed where as the equal opportunities approach focuses mainly on groups.
Diversity Management approach is outcome focussed where as equal opportunities approach is process focussed.
Diversity Management approach is mainly implemented basis the business cases where as the equal opportunities approach is implemented focussing on ethical and social cases.
Change in Management is unpredictable and it has also proven that it was difficult to manage.
There are a lot of cases where diversity was managed efficiently. This could be measured using factors like:
Customer Centricity
Innovative thought, creativity and Learning and development
Business process improvement and change management
Financial centricity
It could be determined that a balance between an efficient diversity management and effective business management considering all the above factors. One of the effective ways of managing diversity is doing a balanced score card in the Organization. The balanced score card approach is useful in illustrating and defining the processes in which the diversity would contribute indirectly to the financial strength of the Organization. The balanced score card illustrates three main processes like Customer focus, business processes, creativity and learning which directly give out the desired output which is the business case.
Let us look into all the factors mentioned above. They form the basis for good examples of great diversity illustrations which yielded good organizational benefits.
Customer Focus of Aberdeen City Council:
Aberdeen City Council is a body which is highly sensitive towards its society considering many factors like population and creating newer employment opportunities with many existing conditions in the City like reduced skill set among the younger workers, reduced job opportunities to the older generations. It has created a new age policy which has given opportunities to people over 60 years of age to apply for employment. This is an example where an Organization has benefitted out of the set policies by creating newer opportunities to younger and older generations (Age Positive 2010).
Business Process Improvement:
A well known Bank in the UK has undergone a great amount of challenges with the downsizing it has seen in the recent years. With the reduced amount of skill set, growing change of employment problems, the Bank has done a great deal in research and went out to recruit basis a larger vision in the society. They came up with changed working conditions, improved working conditions, flexible working hours and good retirement options including some other benefits and training and development opportunities to enhance the skill set of the Employees. By implementing such a strategy and by diversifying the opportunities of employment the Bank has seen a great improvement in reducing the costs of training and development because of the aged employee who came in with some kind of knowledge and have also seen increased business benefits (DTI 2012).
Creativity and innovation:
Businesses have faced a lot of situations in terms of work force, reduced local employee base, outdated skill set and population problems. An Institution in the UK has seen such challenges and it explored a lot of opportunities around in order to solve the situation. It has decided to recruit overseas and it has recruited a significant number of people from a different country. It has also organized training and development sessions for the people they have recruited and ensured that all the facilities they needed were solved and in were in place. This distinct practice of diversity ensured that the institution did not face any challenges at a later stage in recruitment due to adapting a newer practice called the innovative thinking.
We have seen various stages of creating and emphasizing on equal opportunities among various levels in the Organization and various ways of promoting rules to promote diversity. Let us look into various aspects diversity and team work, communication problems, motivation and team work problems. Apart from the factors which we have seen there are some other factors which enhance great practices of diversity in the Organizations.
Promoting sustainable development in the Organizations:
Creating sustainable growth and significant development include adapting newer practices of hiring externally and inviting newer talent into the top management to bring in new ideas to enhance the business perspectives and to face any internal or external challenges within the Organization. It has been proved that diverse work force is more efficient when compared to internal interactions.
Evading Cultural differences within the Organization:
Diversity had a strong impact on cultural differences within the Organization. As and when newer talent was hired from external countries it was noticed that cultural differences were not to be seen completely. The reason behind this is when diverse talent is brought in with the amount of vast and varied skill set they possess their firm efficiencies and culturally related points slowly evade completely. The same is slightly different in the case of Customers as when Customers see a sales person from their region or when their Cultural attributes match the Customers believe the Sales Person to a greater extent than when compared to a sales person with a cultural differences. This enhances the performance benefits of the Organization when employee diversity matches the population within the local region.
Easy adaptability needs to be funded:
Easy adaptability is constantly supported by most of the diversity theories. Easy adaptability and any change in the processes in the Organization are viewed in a negative sense as is it is an end in itself. Such changes in processes do not get funded initially and they are expected to generate revenues or profits on the onset of the process or with the commencement of the process.
Fears of disharmonising work place environment:
We have seen that diversity supports and enhances differences in the Organizational systems and its processes however it is challenging sometimes for the Heads of several processes to create and maintain the harmonious work environment basis the rules which were created. There were a lot of cases in which it was seen that diversity may not enhance harmony in the work place but it definitely creates the need for managing conflict.
It can be said that good diversity management would support financially weaker Organizations by reducing the cost for various programs, enhancing the need for improvement of Individuals, enhancing the need for Organizational improvement, adapting newer methodologies and ideas to reduce time and effort involved in the process. So good diversity would essentially lead to improvised performances in the Organization where all the factors are considerably taken into account. In relation to this negative diversity management could lead to negative impact on Businesses, incurring more amounts of costs and expenditure within the Organization.
Let us look into managing diversity with the influence of power and authority. The importance and the real value of diversity is known when it is managed in the heart of a difficult Organization with its focus on unimportant things and factors which could not lead to any improvement in the Organization. Its real value is assessed when it is managed in challenging situations and challenging environments. Let us focus on the real factors influencing diversity. Its value is enhanced when results are achieved and seen with a reduction in employee base, reduced costs to run the process or the Organization, increased levels of motivation and support in the Organization. When all such results are achieved the Organization can experience greater and valuable Organizational branding, greater customer experience results and great returns in terms of financial strength (Bitc 2010).
There is another aspect of diversity which is not really concentrated on which is sensitivity. This aspect has a greater impact on the Organizational performance like Customers, Vendors, Competitors, Stake holders and Management. Diversity cannot be managed through laws and legislation alone however such aspects become critical for its management. Mutual respect and maintaining a balance also creates harmony in maintaining and managing diversity. Creating and maintaining a positive diverse environment should have and enhance the motivating effect on the Employees than have a negative effect on them. When Organizations adapt to newer practices and policies they should ensure:
The maximum extent to which the Organization would implement such policies
Create and maintain a complete trust and understanding between the employees and the employers that a fair deal of support would be rendered (DTI 2012).
Diversity might have an understanding of allowing or creating a proactive sense so that it becomes the critical factor to enhance the growth of the Organization. The contribution of all the Employees in the Organization creates a value by reducing any gaps or changes in the Organization and by increasing the financial strength of the Organization by striving to achieve the Organizational objectives. In a diverse environment or an Organization employees interact efficiently and exchange their ideas and any methods used for implementing any newer practices in the Organization (Ucsfhr 2010).
We have seen a lot of aspects of diversity in Organizations and individuals. Let us consider the case of managing diversity and the business:
Managing diversity in an Organization is different from any other traditional idea of managing diversity among smaller groups. In an Organization there are a lot of Employees involved and employed. They have a lot of differences between them. Treating them with a great sense of value cannot be achieved through imparting any training sessions or any other rules designed by the management. Treating all the employees with a great sense of respect and valuing any smallest differences involves a great deal of effort within the employees as it requires a change of mind set and values within them. There is a specific theory to test as to how well diversity in management works and it has proved that there are significant positive outcomes (UCSFHR 2010).
Diversity in Organization enhances greater Management and employee relations.
It enhances greater Customer centricity
It enhances greater innovative thinking within the employees of the Organization.
It enhances greater flexibility and enhances the scope of creativity within the employees in the Organization.
Diversity enhances greater sustenance and increased value for business improvement.
We have seen and reflected on various positive and negative aspects of different ideologies around diversity and equal opportunities. The argument around managing diversity effectively is mainly due to the non acceptance of diversity in the management of their Organizations. This has promoted the need for gathering more and more evidence. Such Organizations which were not supportive of diversity did not cause much hindrance to the growing Organizations as these were the ones which appreciated the advantages in adapting and managing diversity.
This has guided many smaller Organizations to recognise the value of diversity. Diversity is not a subject to read but it is a great deal of philosophy. Diversity provides a wider platform to learn, to interact, to exchange, to view, to learn, to appreciate and to understand various levels of knowledge, various laws and legislations based on diversity. It encourages a great deal of differences, valuing those differences to understand and to spread the right kind of sense in terms of managing diversity effectively. Diversity in terms of Business is a strategy in itself in which different individuals and Organizations come together and exchange their views, follow and adapt to the set standards, exchange views within the employee groups of the Organization by constantly motivating the teams to strive for innovation and creativity (Bitc 2010).
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