Critical Analysis Essay

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Ensuring Diversity in the Workforce

Emad N. Alkhadabah

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration

MSA 698: Directed Administrative Portfolio

Dr. Larry F. Ross

March 28, 2021

Ensuring Diversity in the Workforce

In the workplace, diversity refers to the encompassing of different aspects of individuals such as race, ethnicity, gender, personality, education level, organization leadership occupation among other factors. Diversity can also be looked into as how people perceive themselves and others in the workplace. When an organization is having diverse workplace, they get a better understanding of the demographics and what it’s involved in such groups of people.

. When an organization does not have diversity inclusion it can pose disadvantages since there are potential lawsuits on the creation of equal employment opportunity. These legal suits are a disadvantage to any business since they tend to be costly and diverse of the organization’s resources. It can also lead to the creation of a negative perception of the customers, potential investors, and future employees. Having diversity inclusion in an organization is not enough to guarantee the success of an organization.

Diversity and transformational leadership

Diversity is connected to transformational leadership; his is because in a diverse environment there will be a lot of assessment that is going to take place because different people are involved, and this will help to monitor the work which they are doing. Leaders will have to be very keen to know the kind of employees whom they may need some assistance. The other issue which is connected to transformational leadership is because once many people from different parts and with different cultures are involved in the organization they are going to be in a fair and healthy competition. The reason for this is because different people have different ways in which they are going to work to make sure that the organization is in safer hands and it is getting profit just as it is supposed to be doing. Another important aspect in transformational leadership is that it brings training since it enables the organization to appreciate the individual differences among the employees while at the same time providing an equal opportunity for all the employees to exercise potential regardless of their differences. This will make the organization to have a very smooth working relationship with all other employees.

When it comes to diversity training, it is supposed to target everyone in the organization from the top level to the bottom level. At the top management, diversity training enables the managers to make decisions and implement policies that can influence the organization's view on diversity and inclusion, this is one thing which was not always present with leaders in the past. They are also responsible for staffing, firing, renting, and policymaking which impacts the organization's performance. The top managers can dictate the culture of an organization since the lower ranks emulate them. The top managers must understand the impacts that their decision has on all people in the workplace. The lower ranks are essential to the success of an organization since they are responsible for implementing the regulations that are set by the organization. Each employee needs to feel appreciated regardless of his/her background and this is very important in making sure that transformational leadership has been achieved.

Diversity and SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis means that the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization are assessed. This is to come up with a conclusion whether having different people in the organization is bringing strengths and opportunities in the workplace or are the presence of different people from all diversities what they are bringing to the organization are weaknesses and threats. SWOT plays a vital role in studying the organization; this is through knowing the internal and the external aspects of the organization. When weaknesses and threats have been identified it can become very easy for the organization to know how it is going to deal with the negative outcomes and at the same time how it is going to enhance the positive ones.

Where the organization has adopted inclusion and diversity in its workforce, it is capable of tapping into the full potential of its employees. All those employees have got different abilities and skills; when all capabilities of different employees are brought together there is going to be enhanced performance of the organization. This is one of the strengths of having a diverse workforce. An organization can broaden its viewpoint which is obtained from the diverse experiences from the employees who were obtained from different backgrounds and this can be used as learning experience. An organization is also able to have a competitive advantage in the marketplace since there is the hiring of individuals with different talents and this enables the organization to tackle the challenges facing them effectively, (Graham et al.2017).

For the diverse strategic marketing plan to effectively work, the HR professionals should conduct an assessment of diversity through discussions, create open forums that enable employees to discuss the challenges and obstacles of diversity, and conducting satisfaction surveys for the employees. Through this the top officials will be in a position to know how they can curb threats and weaknesses of the organization which have been mentioned. In the process of developing a marketing plan, the HR department should ensure that they set a measurable goal regarding diversity. After the completion of the plan, both the management and executive should be committed to the goals. This is supposed to be a collective responsibility for everyone in the organization but not just the executives and human resource managers.

Diversity and Business plan development

When the organization is adopting the inclusion and diversity programs, it should ensure that the programs reflect the organization positively. This can be through ensuring that it complies with the federal mind state law. This is in terms of the business plan which they are developing. The business plan should as well be complying with the cultures and the beliefs of people that they are serving. A manager in the office may not know what he is supposed to do and may not know what those people who are in the ground wants the organization to deal with so that the organization can be of much impact to the locals. With having majority of the organization staff coming from different and diverse worlds knowing what kind of the products will be good for different groups of people as they are planning and documenting the business plan will be very easy. They will not have to spend a lot of money and time as they are going out to the field to make research. This is because people who have interacted with such people will always be in the organization and they will be providing any information in case there is a need for that. This is very important because the company will not spend any extra cost as they are trying to make some research. It will also minimize the time which could have been spent in the field.

Diversity and market assessment

Market assessment is very important, this is because with many people from different places, they are going to know what their local people are lacking and what they could have accepted willingly if the company embarked in producing such products. The other way for assessing the market is ensuring that feedback should be taken from the customers and if it is possible all those feedbacks are supposed to be incorporated and whatever they had said should be taken into consideration. This is because most of the loyal clients are going to give out their honest feedback and in case this is used for the right purpose it is going to make sure that the brand of the company is continuing to improve. This is because with such information and feedback it will be of so much value to make sure that the next campaign will be containing what the customers had previously listed. This is most cases it is going to act as the motivating factor. They are going to make sure that they are supporting whatever the organization is coming up with and the reason for doing this is that they are going to feel like they are part and parcel of the organization and this is going to make them own whatever is being done in the organization, (Chau et al. 2019).

The reason why campaigns are supposed to be carried out is to ensure that there is a lot of collection of as much data as possible and this data in most cases it is going to be off so much important in focusing on the future for the organization. The data will be collected from the feedback of the customers and other stakeholders and it will be analyzed by using qualitative analysis of data since it cannot be quantified as it answers questions on why. This is going to attract all meaningful insights from the data. This will help the organization to know which the best tactics are. The tactics are going to get the most appropriate picture of how things are on the ground. Such insight should never be ignored, (Del et al. 2019)

Diversity and marketing strategy

Embracing diversity in the creative team is very essential in ensuring that the marketing strategy is diverse. This is to create an authentic message for the diverse team. When many people are being engaged in any forum, for instance in marketing strategy, one can be able to get variety of information regarding what consumers in the ground would want. These insights choosing the best and the most effective strategy will be very easy. All people are supposed to be involved before any information is developed. This is because with these the information will be incorporating all that people would need to hear. This is either as they are old, young, whether they are living with diversity or whether they are from different cultures. Most people buy the product if they are sure, and they have been convinced that the product is the best for them at that very time. Therefore, embracing diversity within the whole team is very important and it is going to make the organization sell more and in the long run, they are going to make as much profit as possible. organizations are also supposed to make sure that they are striving and building diversity in the workplace through crafting a team that has got different backgrounds, philosophies and also help in improving the marketing strategies, through this, there will be high chances that there will be a diversity of marketing flow which will come out from the team.  

When one wants to achieve the best diverse marketing, they should use an effective strategy, (Khan et al. 2019). The most effective one is a campaign this is because with these campaigns different and large numbers of people are going to know about the existence of the product. The campaign will not be restricted to any kind of people but instead, it is going to include all people without minding where they are from or which religion or culture which they subscribe to. This is because there will be a lot of learning which will be taking place. People are going to know so much about the organization as well. During the campaigns, they are going to be given the chance where they will be in a position to ask anything that they would feel that they would need any form of clarification.

Building from the ground up 

When it comes to the issue of diversity, for the organization it is supposed to use a brand message is supposed to be as clear and direct to the point as possible. This is because with that all people who are going to come across such a message are going to understand what is happening. This is because there are different variety of people who are the target group for instance women, men, children, young and old people. The message is supposed to be modified so that it could be in a position to fit into each of the groups which are going to be the target groups. This is because if one kind of message is used in all groups of people in most cases it is going to fail.

Using of organic messages which is unique from each group is important since the needs which are specific to different groups of people have been identified and it has been acted accordingly. The desires as well are supposed to be put into consideration and at the same time whether those certain groups are having any prior information about whatever is being marketed, (Ng, et al, 2020). The reason for his is that if they have the bases the information is not supposed to come as a brand-new thing, but just little modifications are the ones which are supposed to be done to make sure that there is no confusion which is being caused about the product.

Understanding inclusivity languages

To create campaigns and other strategies which are going to be used for marketing in a diverse capacity one must be supposed to be aware of the audience which one is going to speak with. However, despite the understanding of the audience is essential it is not necessary that the message which is going to be written is supposed to be very direct and at the same time they are going to exclude others. The reason why one is trying and understanding the language which the audiences are speaking is so that there will be no language barrier which in case it is present can hinder the work which the campaign wants to achieve. 

However, because of diversity one is supposed to be very familiar with as many languages as possible to make sure that there are at no point will there be a language barrier but at least there will be communication even though it is not that fluent communication but at least one will be in a position to at least say something which will help ensure that the strategies have had an impact to all the people whom they have been met. There must be a language that is all-inclusive as well this is especially in all the aspects of the campaigns and this will make the whole process to be target-specific and at the same time, it will welcome others since they can be in a position to understand what is going on, (Ashe, et al, 2017). The crafting of a diversity statement is very essential, and it is going to act as a motivation for many other clients.

Conclusion

Where the employees have not accepted diversity in the workplace there is a high possibility of having a misunderstanding, conflicts which will eventually prevent the organization from achieving its objectives. For the employees to accept diversity, the organization must set a strategic plan which includes diversity training to enable employees’ diversity and teamwork leading to the attainment of the organization’s objectives. The paper has discussed how it has enabled organization to have transformational leadership and SWOT analysis as well.

References

Ashe, S., & Nazroo, J. (2017). Equality, diversity and racism in the workplace: A qualitative analysis of the 2015 race at work survey. Online: http://hummedia. manchester. ac. uk/institutes/code/research/raceatwork/Equ

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del Carmen Triana, M., Richard, O. C., & Su, W. (2019). Gender diversity in senior management, strategic change, and firm performance: Examining the mediating nature of strategic change in high tech firms. Research Policy, 48(7), 1681-1693.

Graham, M. E., Belliveau, M. A., & Hotchkiss, J. L. (2017). The view at the top or signing at the bottom? Workplace diversity responsibility and women’s representation in management. ILR Review, 70(1), 223-258.

Khan, M. S., Lakha, F., Tan, M. M. J., Singh, S. R., Quek, R. Y. C., Han, E., ... & Legido-Quigley, H. (2019). More talk than action: gender and ethnic diversity in leading public health universities. The Lancet, 393(10171), 594-600.

Ng, E. S., & Sears, G. J. (2020). Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), 437-450.