Unit VIII Managing Diversity

Robert Benders

Columbia Southern University

BSL 4000- Managing Diversity in Organizations

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Section 1: Benefits of Organizational Diversity 4 Assessment Findings in Miami, FL 4 Assessment Findings in Kansas 5 Recommendation to ELC 6 Section 2: Improving Organizational Culture 6 Assessment of Religious Beliefs and Practices and its Impact on Organization Culture 7 Assessment of Gender and Sexual Orientations and its Impact in Organization Culture 8 Plan of Action to Address Raised Concerns 9 Section 3: Gender and Work-Life Balance 10 Analysis of Demographics of Gender in Workplace 10 Advantages and Disadvantages Flexible Schedules and Responsibilities 12 Benefits of offering child and elder care in the organization 12 Work-Life Balances to Achieve Greater Results in Organization 13 Section 4: Age Demographics 13 Advantages and disadvantages of a younger workforce 14 Advantages and disadvantages of an older workforce 15 References 16

Organizational diversity is a growing concern that takes various dimension. Fig Technologies that has been rocked with various issues relating to diversity. Executive Leadership Council contracted consultancy services on numerous diversity issues which Fig Technology was experiencing. Steps to improve organizational diversity have been covered in the detail in the project. First, benefits of organizational diversity are discussed on how to improve working conditions reported on Miami, Florida and Kansas City. Second, improving organizational culture is another area of interest that has been explored and emphasized by embracing religious diversity. Similarly, concerns raised on the perception on LGBTQ celebrations is addressed with recommendation made to ELC integrate diversity on the basis of gender and sexual orientation. Third, gender and work-life balance and lastly, question of age demographics and its dimension is analyzed and how can be applied to enhance organizational diversity.

The workplace is becoming more and more diverse necessitated by globalization, cultural integration and the development of digital communications. Small to big organizations are operating in the global market. This requires an organization to embrace diversity to enable them successfully manage employees and customers from diverse backgrounds. It is commonly said that the world has become a global village. This simply means that the world has become more diversified creating demand for companies to adopt global corporate culture where employees from any part of the world can comfortably work without a feeling of estrangement (Inegbedion et al…, 2020). Benefits of organizational diversity is discussed by evaluating organizational environment in three locations-FL, Miami and MO.

Organizational culture in both offices has been perceived properly. However, it seems employees are deficient in interpersonal skills that sour interactions between employees leading to friendly rivalry on the subject of professional sports and local college teams. Since the rivalry that exists among employees is friendly, it simply means that employees are free to each other, talk and share and this has not affected the quality of work. In an ideal situation and in the working environment where employees are from different backgrounds, different ages, different geographical locations and even gender, ideological differences are expected. However, ideological differences should be within manageable levels and even serve to the benefit of an organization by promoting problem-solving through enhanced quality decision and consideration of different alternatives (Hofhuis, van der Rijt & Vlug, 2016). To Miami, friendly rivalry interactions is healthy because it demonstrates that leadership accommodate different views and encourage employees to differ within levels they can consider views of others.

In FL, it has been noted that rivalry has grown to extreme levels. This potentially could have been caused by weak leadership practices that promote organizational diversity compared to Miami. Lack of effective leadership to manage diversity in FL, created room for conflict to grow because employees became intolerant to divergent views and friendly rivalry grew sour. Organizational diversity promotes adaptability, flexibility, and tolerance. Further, it is noted that software from Brazil and South Africa have not been able to make employees happy about futbol instead of football. This shows that employees are not adaptable to change, a skill that they should develop to enable them to appreciate different ideas from employees from other cultural backgrounds.

For employees in Kansas City Office, it is noted that they do not stick to organizational culture. Some employees are devoid of a code of conduct that governs how employees. Employees are engaging in unethical practices such as intimate relationships among employees which could hinder productivity because employees tend to spend most of the time sharing about love matters, how they would have homosexual and heterosexual encounters creating an environment that is not effective for working.

The leadership must come clear on ethical principles that employees should adhere to when at the place of work. Instead of engaging on personal, sex and love matters, employees should be encouraged to share ideas on how to increase productivity and serve customers better. Further, there is the petition that states behavioral practices that employees are engaged in has already been banned. This brings another aspect of legal ethics which requires employees to follow rules and laws that have been set by the governing authority in the jurisdiction of operation. Therefore, it is illegal for employees to continue hanging out and sharing the matters that pertain to relationships and sexual partners.

For Miami and FL, the main issue of concern is organization diversity. Diversity promotes quality decision making, promotes cordial interpersonal relationship, promotes creativity, reduces conflict, enhances adaptability and also allow an organization to leverage on benefits wide pool of skills and competencies in global space from different cultural backgrounds (Saxena, 2014; Hofhuis, van der Rijt & Vlug, 2016; Inegbedion et al…,2020). Organizations that promote create systems that make employees from different cultures feel free to work and interact with others (Inegbedion et al…, 2020). Teamwork, enhanced communication, cultural competence training and emotional intelligence development are potential ways ELC should consider to enhance organizational diversity. For Kansas City Office, ELC should consider redefining the code of conduct and also training the employee on the importance of aligning their organizational behaviors with organizational culture.

Fig technologies is a global company that is experiencing problems which are related to diversity management. There are reasons to believe that organizational culture does not embrace diversity even though it is operating in the global context considering complaints that are raised by some of the employees. Precisely, it is enumerated that the company does not observe the non-Christian holiday and LGBT celebrations. Diversity in two areas of concerns are assessed in this section and plan action drafted which Executive Leadership Council should consider address raised issues and have organization culture responsive to concerns raised by the employees.

In Fig Technologies, some employees are complaining that the organization does not provide an opportunity for the non-Christians to observe Holidays. This simply shows that organization is dominated by Christianity culture yet it is global. Organizations cannot ignore other religious groups whereas it is operating in the global business environment which comprises multiple religious segments. Further, Fig Technologies does not employ employees from one religion, which is Christianity but does recruit employees that are from other religions and that is why they are complaining and agitating for non-Christian holidays. Similarly, employees profess other religions other than Christianity, citing that they are being harassed by other employees. This makes the working environment volatile and unconducive for non-Christian employees.

In the survey report by SHRM, the value and importance of accommodating religious diversity is given paramount attention and argued as one critical element organizations should consider implementing in the sphere of growing diversity (Victor, 2008). It is noted spirituality is not only practiced at home but has become part and parcel of life to employees. Therefore, employees need to find ways to implement religious diversity at the workplace. Implementation of religious diversity is a way to create an inclusive organizational working environment where all employees feel accepted, recognized, respected for who they are and aligned to the organization's culture (Victor, 2008). This is what lacks in Fig Technologies where some employees feel a sense of belonging and superior while non-Christian employees continue lamenting for lack of recognition and also harassment by other employees. Religious diversity influence employee retention and morale and this will only be attained by embracing an organizational culture that accommodates religious practices and beliefs for all employees (Victor, 2008).

In the research conducted in 2015, Christianity was the largest religious group with 31% of the world population, Muslims assumed the second position with 24% and Hindus closed the list of the third-largest religious group with 15% (Hackett & McClendon, 2017). Each of these religious groups have their own beliefs and practices which significantly influence their way of life. Worship services, holidays, pray hours, celebrations, wearing traditions and other practices differ among these religions. However, to encourage religious diversity, organizations must look for ways to accommodate all these religious groups because they have a diversified workforce which are drawn from different religious groups. This helps to motivate employees and also increase employee retention as wells as promote acceptance of its products and services in the global marketplace.

For example, important holidays to observe for Christianity are Easter Holiday and Christmas Celebrations; to Muslims, Eid al-Fitr is the most important celebration to observe and lastly, Diwali is the most important festival to observe to Hindus. Therefore, the organization needs to look for ways to accommodate different religious groups instead of fostering religious discrimination by selectively accommodating one religious practice.

Some employees in Fig Technologies are loudly complaining lack of LGBT celebrations. This shows that Fig Technologies possibly ignore or discriminate against LGBT, creating a hostile environment for them to carry out their duties. This is unfair because companies are giving opportunities for employees to explore their sexual orientation without intimidation, harassment and exploitation. It is noted that pursuing discriminative practices against LGBT, potentially causes some to try suicide, others suffer from mental health conditions such as major depressive disorder, depression and generalized anxiety disorder (Moleiro & Pinto, 2015). Interpersonal relationships in the organization are also ruined to employees that they feel their sexual and gender orientation is not recognized organization. For example, LGBT employees may shy away from making contributions to the organization because they fear negative compliments and harassment from other employees. The morale of employees could be affected when organizational culture does not protect their interests.

Raised concerns demonstrate that Fig Technologies has not yet embraced diversity which may work at the disadvantage of the organization when working in the global business environment in which diversity management is central to the acquisition of competitive advantage. The ELC should aggressively work to implement human resource policies not only to recruits employees from diversified cultures but also to enhance integration and protection of varied beliefs and practices of all employees.

Second, ELC should develop an organizational culture that promotes the accommodation of different religious groups and practices. Ideally, organizations should encourage religious diversity. Third, ELC should develop policies to prevent discrimination of employees based on their gender and sexual orientation. The fact that an employee is LGBT does not mean they are weak or less important. For example, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple has openly confessed that he is gay and over the years, he has led the company to soar higher where it stands as the most valued company with a market value of over $2 trillion (Wood, 2019). Therefore, it is unethical to discriminate against employees because of their sexual and gender orientation.

Gender and work-life balance (WLB) are core issues that have received varied perceptions over the years attracting series of legislations to address them. Traditionally, people had developed stereotypes with WLB issues being perceived from gender dimension to an extent of creating disparities on the earnings, assignment of roles, segregation in careers and even determining jobs to be assumed by males and females. The perception that employers and even society has developed against gender continues to influence organizational culture and human resource policies adopted by some organizations (Bell, 2016). To close gender discriminative perception that over years has dominated workplace environment, women have strongly come out to advance on career development, undertake professional development on careers initially dominated by the men and also advocate for equality in the compensations.

Similarly, men are also undertaking career which were perceived to belong to women such receptionist and beauty related careers and also supporting women to pursue their interest (Bell, 2016). WLB has also been a contentious issue which has been used to consider women to be committed to family issues more than work hence used to determine compensation packages (Bell, 2016). This section seeks to respond to gender and WLB attitudes with the view of informing Fig Technologies on the diversity management approach to take to address gender and work-life balance.

Fig Technologies is a global company. Assuming it seeking to recruit two project managers, one in the United States and another in India. The project manager is equivalent to a team leader. Two geographical locations have different attitudes on pay and expectation in the relation to question of gender to fill the said position.

In the United States, traditionally it was believed that women gave more commitment to the roles than work and the opposite perception was held about men. Similarly, men were regarded as providers and breadwinners unlike women, a perception that used to shape wage differential and in such advertised roles, men would be given higher remuneration compared to women (Bell, 2016). However, as time has progressed, wages and expectations that people have towards jobs are not defined based on gender but skills, knowledge and abilities are applied. Ideally, to clinch such a position in the United States, it is not the question of whether you are men or women but whether you have the competencies and expertise to deliver on the accountabilities and demands of the roles. Particularly, there are some companies that in the past such as Walmart had been accused of discriminating against women in the top leadership position but have taken measures to create an environment that accommodate women, who now occupy one-third of top leadership (Bloomberg, 2020).

In India, gender discrimination is rampant which is noted by discriminative pay, promotion with gender stereotyping taking center stage from birth to workplace. Men are paid more than women even when they work in the same role and also, a higher executive position is occupied by the men (Bias & Abbas, 2015).To the advertised position of the project manager, because of gender stereotypes which treat men as superior to women, men are likely to be considered and given higher wage compared to women (Bias & Abbas, 2015). Therefore, gender discrimination influences wage differentials and positions to be occupied by men and women.

Recommendation: To address the problem of gender discrimination and the perception that men should be paid more than women, organizations should embrace diversity and equality. Wage and recruitment should not be based on the type of gender but rather skills and expertise because this will help to drive the organization to a higher mark of efficiency, effectiveness and performance. Further, an organization should create an environment favorable for women to thrive and empowering instead of creating a perception they are weak beings.

Flexible scheduling has recently received considerable attention, especially for low-wage workers. Flexible scheduling is advocated for multiple benefits but also management should never remain ignorant of related disadvantages. Flexible scheduling enables workers to attend to family and work needs, promotes job satisfaction, reduces incidences of absenteeism and results to lower employee turnover (Bell, 2016). However, lack of control on the flexible scheduling, rigidity, instability and unpredictability of flexible scheduling especially for low-wage workers are potential problems experienced by the organization (Bell, 2016).

Recommendation: the organization should be informed that workers have other issues that need their attention such as family, social, friends, childcare and even care to elderly hence flexible scheduling should be implemented to all employees, higher to low wage workers.

Some employees juggle both work and caregiving responsibilities. Some organizations provide child and elder care through programs such as flexible scheduling accounts, elder care, onsite child care and other employer’s employee assistance programs (SHRM, 2018). Provision of child and elder care helps to reduce absenteeism levels, turnovers, stress and also improves the morale of employees which leads to higher productivity (SHRM, 2018). Therefore, it is potentially important for an organization to consider adopting child and elderly care programs.

WLB has gained considerable attention in the public discourse with employers deploying various strategies to encourage WLB. Considerable benefits are associated with WLB and improved productivity is one of them. Some of the domains which are related to WLB include health, education, community involvement, leisure, family and household management (Gragnano, Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). For example, WLB creates an opportunity for employees to advance their careers and increase their knowledge which works not only for personal benefits but also for the organization. Similarly, improved health which is positively related to WLB is potentially important to an organization because healthy employees reduce the medical cost to the organization and absenteeism which results in improved productivity management (Gragnano, Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). Finally, WLB enhances job satisfaction and improved the morale of employees which translates to improved productivity management (Gragnano, Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). Therefore, based on the main benefits related to WLB, Fig Technologies should consider embracing WLB in its human resource management practices.

Organizations have levels of distribution of the employees based on the age demographics. In some institutions, prefer a younger workforce while other employers prefer older employees. To encourage diversity in the workplace and prevent the incidence of discrimination based on age, legislation to that effect was enacted. In 1967, Age discrimination in Employment Act legislation was passed which protect applicant and employees that are 40 years and above against discrimination on the ground of age during hiring, promotion, compensations, working conditions, privileges and discharges undertaken by the employers(U.S Department of Labor, n.d). Similarly, Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) prohibits discrimination to the applicants, employees and participants in WIA Title I-financially assisted programs and activities which are parts of the One-Stop system based on age (U.S Department of Labor, n.d).

To the organization of interest that is Fig Technologies, the younger workforce forms the largest portion of employees as supported by findings. Precisely, employees in the age 18-39 are 42 %( 18-25=11% and 26-39=31%) while employees that are 56 years and above are only 24%. Based on these findings of age demographics at Fig Technologies, it is necessary to investigate human resource policies that are applied during recruitment, promotion and discharging of employees to determine whether they violate ADEA. An organization needs to promote age diversity by having employees evenly distributed across all age groups where possible to counter negative stereotypes developed based on age. For example, negative stereotypes against older employees is revealed to be stronger than younger employees which has far-reaching consequences on attitudes and organizational behavior (Hertel, van der Heijden, de Lange & Deller, 2013). Specifically, negative stereotypes against older workers demotivate them continually influencing their success and productivity in the organization.

To better understand dimension age demographic, its value and demerits, two perspectives are considered. In the first perspective, advantages and disadvantages of younger Workforce and second perspective, advantages and disadvantages of an older workforce.

Advantages organization stands to enjoy for having younger employees include fresh ideas and perspectives at the workplace, passionate and energetic workers, digital and technology-savvy workers that are versed changes in the business technologies, cost of reduction because of having a lower experience that causes them to start at lower salaries and finally, younger workforce are easier to manage. On contrary, the younger workforce lack adequate experience especially in the management scope and strategy development, irresponsible and inability to manage pressure and lastly, lacks stability because most do not have a firm grasp of the vision of the organization as well as their career. Further, EEOC could apply ADEA to legally challenge organizations that have a younger workforce because such organizations could be discriminating against older employees.

On part of advantages, older employees are considered to exude confidence warranted by extensive experience, to contain a high level of experience for having worked on various fields, provides reliable service, loyal and also know strategies to use to save money (Dorion, n.d). On contrary, lack of proper communication, resistance to adopting a new culture, discomfort towards an attitude of others especially younger workers are demerits of older workers (Dorion, n.d). To counter this problem, embracing age diversity is a better way to promote a balanced approach supporting older and younger workers.

Bell, P.M. (2016). Diversity in Organizations 3rd Edition. South-Western College Pub

Bias, R., & Abbas, S. S. (2015). Indian Organizations and Attitude towards Women Managers: Gender Differential, Sex Bias, Reaction and Perceptive Reality. Vol.2 (2), Yobe Journal of Economics.