Why is diversity management a potentially Important topic for business organizations to address. And what Initiatives can be used to achieve management objectives Diversity is linked to equal opportunities and positive action, but these terms are not exactly the same. Equal Opportunities refers to giving everyone the same opportunities, regardless of their race, religion, age, sex and country of origin. For example, According to the Sloane new, Minister Mentor Lee Guan Yew said that Singapore gives everyone the opportunity to do well and so it has a harmonious society.
He pointed out that the community had done well over the years under Singapore meritocracy system, he said The government has not disadvantaged any minority group. We are a multi-racial and multi-religious society. We give everyone the opportunity to do well, and thus we have a harmonious society. ( HYPERLINK http//www. Asinine. Com www. Asinine. Com. 04 July 2010). In contrast, positive action is about treating diverse groups differently to give greater opportunities to those in target groups.
Positive action is action related to employment and training opportunities where an organization can priorities recruitment of, for example, minority ethnic people over people from the majority ethnic group. The concept of diversity can be refers to difference between individual. Individual are difference in their skills, gender, tenure, learning styles, language, race, mental health and etc. These differences Influence the way of working of each Individual.
We may find their difference in workplace. Diversity management refers to systematic and planned commitment on the part of organizations to recruit and retain employees from averse demographic background. (Thomas 1992). The focus of this essay question is on managing diversity rather than equal opportunities. Therefore, I will now describe diversity management Is a potentially important topic for business organizations for many reasons.
I will explain five of them to avoid wastage in time, money and resources to grow certain aspects of organizational culture such as innovation and learning to Improve corporate Image, for example to sell more reliably Into diverse communities to improve problem solving through creative abrasion and finally, to increase understanding and flexible management of people with diverse needs, thereby attracting and retaining a wider pool of talent. Ignoring managing diversity would lead an organization waste time, money, resources and affecting organization effectiveness.
Discrimination, unfairness treatment and bullying will lead to the employee dissatisfaction, organization force to spend time on dispute and grievance processes. As a result, this will caused high labor turnover, absenteeism and loss of productivity. Recruitment and training for re-hire new employee incurred higher cost. Organization should create a mutual respect climate for preventing discrimination, unfairness and bullying. For example, the female who apply for promotion have met the criteria but have been rejected due to her gender, where the successful candidate is the male.
This female sues for case under employment equality act, 1998. In this process, an organization force to spend additional time, money and people for responsible to settle down this case. Furthermore, Cox and Blake (1991) argued that the effective management of diversity can create a 1 OFF creativity and innovation, market success, and organizational flexibility. Good diversity management is claimed by some to lead to more innovation and continue learning culture, therefore, increase the profitability and good image of company.
Diverse employees can provide different points of view, ideas and perspectives for organization product, primary tasks redefine market potential, organization vision, mission and value. This leads to the organization becoming more creative and innovative. Diversity within the organization helps to improve corporate image whereby the company is more likely to be seen to cater for different customers in society. Employees may increase their appreciation for different customer needs, therefore improving customer service and satisfaction.
For example, if a company’s client is Thai, and they deal with an employee who is Thai, there may be some shared understanding of what the customer wants and needs. Creative abrasion means two ideas in total opposition to each other. Such opposing ideas can sometimes help a group identify the best solutions, opportunities for new products or brands. Therefore, there is an argument that organizations need a heterogeneous team to access different perspectives, thinking styles and skills. In this way, new ideas will keep being injected into the organization.
A wide variety of ideas will lead the group into positive conflict and help the organization to become more innovative. Organizations need to attract high caliber people. Being seen to manage diversity well means that an organization may increase its attractiveness to a wider diversity of people applying for Jobs. This is important as to stay competitive an organization is constantly trying to develop its talent pool. Ensuring that the potential pool of antedates is as wide as possible will help this.
Organizations that gain a reputation for valuing and respecting a diverse range of staff may become more attractive to candidates. This includes an expectation that the organization will recognize that everyone have a different needs. For example, McDonald’s pioneering scheme allows employees to share their Jobs with family members, so that a persons husband or wife, grandparents and children who are over 16 can Job share without notifying the management. This flexibility has reduced the level of sick leave and creates a work fife balance for employees.
The second part of the question asks for examples of initiatives that have been used to achieve management objectives in the area of diversity. I will discuss four types of initiative diversity training and workshops the use of a diversity management project team rewards for diversity management support mechanisms for diversity groups. First, the organization must communicate what is diversity is and what the organization hopes to achieve by managing it more effectively.
Employees often misunderstand the purpose of diversity training aerogramme and do not understand the business benefits of diversity management. Multicultural workshops are one way of improving understanding and communication between cultural groups. Training is also important for senior managers to ensure their understanding of, and commitment to, the diversity agenda. Organization can establish a diversity management (DAM) project team to co- ordinate action on diversity.
The DAM project team should set clear goals with an appropriate structure of both the team and the project as a whole, along with scoping the project so that it is clear and not overambitious. Organizations can that have contributed to business benefits. These actions might include new product development, increased productivity, evidence of improved employee morale or decreased labor turnover. Support groups, mentoring, and relationship networks can be set up for women and cultural minorities.
As mentioned above, organizations can create a climate where diversity groups feel respected and valued, and where there are clear support mechanisms to handle any challenges at work. In conclusion, diversity can bring numerous benefits to organizations nevertheless, we deed to learn how to manage it more effectively. Otherwise, diversity can lead to an uncomfortable climate, resulting in damaging conflict. Some writers claim that if an organization emphasizes managing diversity and equal opportunity, this will lead to improved organizational performance (Thomas, Ely 1996).
Feedback on this essay Positives Takes account of both parts of the question Defines diversity and equal opportunities and positive action Gives examples to illustrate the different points made Well-structured with an introduction, clear paragraphs with one main point in ACH paragraph and a conclusion Uses four references (you should consider 3-4 as a minimum number references to web-sites do not count as academic references but do count as examples) Points for improvement Consider giving more in-depth paragraphs on at least some of your points.
Four-line paragraphs are quite short. Aim to state your main point, explaining the theory, then back it up with reference to some academic writing, or a report from CHIP, give an example from an organization and ideally offer some critique (strengths and weaknesses) of your argument. I have edited a lot of the English in this essay but even so please do not consider the English to necessarily be completely correct.