Managing Diversity at Workplace
MANAGING DIVERSITY AT WORKPLACE
Introduction
At present diversity, management has become imperative for an organization. The meaning of diversity emphasizes the state of being different due to different characteristics such as gender, race, age, religion, language, etc. Male and female employees are working as well as various ages people are working in an organization. It reflects there are, employees in terms of different: ages, gender, cultural background, physical abilities, disabilities, nations, ethnicity, etc. employed in a workplace. These diverse employees in terms of age, race, religion, and gender create diversity in the workplace. Geographical location, age, caste and religion, language, and professional qualification are some factors that affect the creation of diversity in the workplace. According to that, the organization consists of a diversified workforce. Thus workforce heterogeneity is an inherent characteristic of a company. Therefore, managing diversity becomes an essential need for an organization and It is challenging. Workforce diversity is a strength of an organization. It affects for productivity and efficiency of the employees. As well as the cost and benefits have from diversity in the workplace. Researchers have interpreted diversity with several interpretations such as; Cox (2001) defined diversity as the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or marketing setting. While William and O’Reilly (1998) defined diversity as the degree of heterogeneity among team members on specified demographic dimensions. Ely and Roberts (2008) define cultural diversity as differences among team members in race, ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality, or other dimensions of social identity that are marked by a history of intergroup prejudice, discrimination, or oppression. According to my point of view, diversity is the range of differences in terms of various qualities and individualities. Although, diversity management reflects employing proper practices, behaviors, work policies, rules, and procedures to govern the differences among employees in order to achieve competitive advantages. There are various perspectives relating to diversity management in the workplace. Among those, the main consent of this report is to examine: the dimensions of diversity, the need of addressing diversity and diversity management, and methods that can be applied to manage diversity in the workplace are getting priority.
In addition to the above classification, another grouping is personality, internal dimensions, external dimensions, and organizational dimensions.
Internal dimensions are age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race
External dimensions are geographic location, income, personal habits, appearance, work experience
Organizational dimensions are management status, work location, seniority, work content field, and division
The necessity of addressing diversity in the workplace
The need of emphasizing diversity is the availability of costs and benefits from differences among employees. Those costs and benefits affect for organizational performance and survival of the company. Therefore, it is important to consider managing diversity at the workplace.
Benefits from diversity at the workplace
- 1. Obtain a variety of solutions to a problem from diverse backgrounds. The best solution can be chosen from those alternative solutions.
- 2. Various skills and experiences of employees provide a better service to customers and it leads to an increase the customer loyalty and goodwill of the company.
- 3. Higher productivity and profit due to various talents and abilities of employees.
- 4. Company provides the opportunity for a diverse workforce to work. Recruitment of various language experts and diverse employees in various aspects helps to reach the global market with different cultures.
- 5. Ability to respond effectively to diverse external clientele.
- 6. Encourage the creativity of employees.
Disadvantages of diversity at the workplace
- 1. Possibility of arising language problems.
- 2. More diversified workforce is difficult to manage effectively and efficiently.
- 3. Possibility of reducing group cohesiveness.
- 4. Inability of gaining consensus decisions and concerted action.
- 5. Difficult communication and integration.
- 6. Possibility of increasing ambiguity, complexity, and confusion.
Diversity Management
According to my point of view, managing diversity reflects implementing organizational policies, procedures, practices, and behaviors to reduce the disadvantages of diversity and to gain benefits from the advantages of diversity. Hence the significance of diversity management in the workplace is to obtain advantages from diversity and mitigate the disadvantage of diversity.
In order to, manage the diversified workforce manager should acknowledge the differences among employees. Identifying those differences helps to implement good management practices for workforce diversity. Managing diversity should prevent discrimination. Enhancing creativity and growth, an opportunity to reposition the organization, flexibility, problem-solving skills, and synergism are significantly received from managing the diversified workforce. Besides, creativity drives innovation. It is another key benefit of diversity management. Competitive advantages can be obtained from well-managed diversity. Competitive advantages must require for organizations to compete with rivals. Organizational performance can be enhanced through proper management of workforce diversity at the workplace. As well as firm’s culture should be designed to gain maximum benefit from a diversified workforce. Workforce diversity affects the productivity of the firm through employee work. Example: language difficulties influence ineffective communication among personnel. It affects the outcome of the organization. Thus diversity management rises in order to manage diversity issues.
Methods of diversity management.
In 1998, Thomas and Ely introduced 3 models for diversity management. Those are,
- 1. The discrimination and fairness method
- 2. The access and legitimacy method
- 3. Learning and effective method
Discrimination and fairness
This is one of a method that the organization can practice to manage the issues of diversity in the workplace.
It refers to impartial and fair treatment for an employee and focuses on equal employment opportunity.
Mentoring and career development programs can establish to operate discrimination and fairness among employees. Employees are guided to respect all cultural differences in an organization will help to avoid the issues of diversity. It becomes an equal employment opportunity for employees. It is the discrimination and fairness theory.
The access and legitimacy
Access and legitimacy is the second method that Thomas and Ely introduced to manage the differences among employees. It emphasizes acceptance and celebration of variances. External environment and internal environment affects the workplace. Therefore, diversity is arisen within the organizational environment and from outside the organization and it affects the performance of the company. By undertaking or complying with differences, it will help to manage diversity. In other words, in order to gain benefit from opportunities available in diversity and to avoid the disadvantages of differences, the company can implement acceptance and celebrating theory without rejecting the differences.
The learning and effectiveness theory.
This paradigm embraces taking in and fully understanding or acknowledging the differences among the workforce through learning. The organization that follows this model is in the perception of “All personnel are in the same group to achieve a common objective through workforce is distinguished from various characteristics like gender, age, religion, etc…” According to, the learning and effectiveness model manage the diversity via valuing, realizing and appreciating the differences among employees at the workplace.
ultimately, all these 3 paradigms are best management practices that a firm can employ to manage diversity in the workplace.
Thank You.
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