Diversity in the workplace
Sitata
SitanewDiversityinworkplacenew1.docx1
Sitora Rakhmanova
Cambridge College
BSM445 Organization Theory & Behavior
May 10, 2021
Diversity in the Workplace
Introduction
Globalization is rapidly increasing. This trend means that organization members need to communicate more often with people from other cultures speaking different languages and coming from varied backgrounds. Competition is now worldwide, so diversity in the organization will increase to help with regional knowledge, marketing, and customer relations. Executives and managers will require cross-cultural training and competence in conflict resolution to face the challenges of the transition to a more diverse workforce. Diversity will increase productivity and success in global settings and, with good management, smooth collaboration among employees, customers and communities.
From my experience in three jobs that have different diversity of culture, language and ways of working, I have noticed actions that work well in diverse workplaces. In each job we all work in the same place doing different things, but we always communicate to each other all the time. Some of the managers connect to us, and work with us to help to make it easier for customers and for the company. This type of management and teamwork makes diversity enjoyable and successful.
Diversity in the Workplace: Definition and Explanation
According to Esty et al. (1995, as cited in Farnsworth, 2020), “Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc.” (para. 4). What is important about this definition is not only working with people from different cultures, but also to learn from their backgrounds and treat all coworkers equally. Everyone in the diverse workplace has to respect each other’s uniqueness.
The Difference between Equality and Diversity
What is equality in the workplace? Equality aims to ensure that all individuals have equal opportunities to succeed, and it prevents individuals from being discriminated against or treated differently due to certain personality or physical characteristics.
Diversity, on the other hand, is about appreciating differences between individuals, and in context with the workplace ensuring that each of these varying attributes and characteristics are valued.
Human Rights Careers (n.d.) defined equality by stating, “The most basic form of equality in the workplace is a lack of discrimination…. However, equality in the workplace runs deeper than simply the absence of discrimination. Businesses must also provide opportunities to all employees equally, so everyone has the chance to improve their skills” (para. 3). The important parts of this definition are that no one experiences prejudice against them because of any of their characteristics and everyone is offered similar opportunities. Each area of the world has its own set of people faced discrimination, but all forms are wrong in the workplace.
Benefits of Diversity
Diversity and equality can provide benefits for employees and employers. This kind of workplace can help people work together towards company goals, increasing productivity and reducing conflict as they learn from each other and accomplish tasks together.
1. Diverse cultural perspectives can inspire creativity and drive innovation
2. Local market knowledge and insight makes a business more competitive and profitable
3. Cultural sensitivity, insight, and local knowledge means higher quality, targeted marketing
6. Diverse teams are more productive and perform better
7. Greater opportunity for personal and professional growth (Reynolds,2017, para. 4)
Challenges:
8. Colleagues from some cultures may be less likely to let their voices be heard
12. Different understandings of professional etiquette
13. Conflicting working styles across teams (Reynolds. 2017, para. 5)
∙ Boosting employee engagement
Employees are far more likely to perform well in an environment where diversity and inclusion 4
are top priority.
The whole point of diversity & inclusion that it is about everyone, not just underrepresented groups - so encouraging everyone to be confident in their ability will only help to boost morale and employee engagement across the entire team.
What are the benefits of diversity in the workplace for employers? ∙ Increased range of ideas
One of the key benefits of diversity in society is the vast range of ideas that can be explored.
Diversity in the workplace will often result in a much broader spectrum of creativity, from people with different backgrounds, skills and experiences.
A wider range of different perspectives will be highly beneficial across all teams; from marketing to finance.
∙ Increased employee engagement
Generally speaking, employees who feel included and wanted will be more engaged and motivated to do well.
In turn, a more engaged team will often yield better team performance; making it a win-win for employers.
∙ Boosts company reputation & simplifies recruitment processes
Diversity in the workplace will help to build a great reputation for the company; especially 5
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important when you are looking to hire and retain talent.
Especially in terms of graduate recruitment, D&I can play a huge role in attracting candidates to your business; if done well, it can also help you stand out from the bigger firms.
∙ Wider talent pool to choose from
Companies that only hire men, for example, are limiting themselves to the skills of half the population, this is just one of the many benefits of gender diversity in the workplace.
∙ Helps you to understand your customers better
Having a more diverse team will help your company gain a broader understanding of your customers, what they want and what they look for.
Who knows? Your company could be missing out on a huge group of potential customers that could be explored by hiring more diversely.
∙ Reduce employee turnover
Companies with a diverse workforce will tend to retain employees for longer, because ultimately employees who feel accepted and valued will be much less likely to leave.
Likewise, companies who clearly value career development, and really care about their employees, will tend to have a much higher retention rate than those who don't.
Benefits of diversity in the workplace statistics
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Still not convinced of the importance of diversity in the workplace? Here are some key statistics that indicate the value and benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
∙ 67% of job seekers said that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. Glassdoor
∙ 83% of millennials are more engaged when they think their company fosters an inclusive culture. Deloitte
∙ Companies in the top quartile of gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns that were above their national industry median. Companies in the top quartile of racial/ ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median. McKinsey
∙ Companies reporting the highest levels of racial diversity brought in nearly 15 times more sales revenue on average than those with the lowest levels of racial diversity. Science Daily
Diversity in the workplace examples
Companies across the board are taking steps to create an equality and diversity strategy. Some of the best diversity and inclusion in the workplace examples are:
∙ AT&T
Industry: Technology
AT&T took the prestigious top spot on DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity In 2019. 7
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The award commended the behaviour of CEO and Chairman Randall Stephenson, who is a big advocate for inclusion and diversity management in corporate companies.
AT&T has been applauded for its unbiased approach to both graduate recruitment and more senior hiring - allowing managers to recommend individuals through their own app.
They also encourage their employees to speak openly about race, sexuality, religion etc, to increase mutual understanding of their colleagues.
∙ MarriottInternational
Industry: Hospitality
In a close second place on DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies , Marriott recently launched their Serve 360 plan, whereby they invested $5m in order for women, people with disabilities, veterans, refugees and more to learn hospitality skills.
Not every company will be able to afford $5m; but it does point to the value of investing in professional development.
∙ Accenture PLC Industry: Professional Services
Accenture is often ranked within the top companies for diversity ( Thompson Reuters' 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Index ranked Accenture as it's no.1 most diverse company), and though this is largely due to gender representation within their workforce, they have also been applauded for encouraging the inclusion of many different groups.
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Diversity training within the company is broken into three different categories ;
1. Diversity Awareness, to help people understand the benefits of working with a diverse organization,
2. Diversity Management, to help team leaders to successful manage diverse teams 3. Professional Development, to enable minority groups to develop valuable new skills.
Advantages of diversified workforce
An organization's success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as:
∙ Diversity stimulates innovation and productivity and creates a world class culture that can outperform the competition.
∙ A multicultural organization is better suited to serve a diverse external clientele in a more increasingly global market. Such organizations have a better understanding of the requirements of the legal, political, social, economic and cultural environments of foreign nations (Adler, 1991).
∙ In research-oriented and hi-tech industries, the broad base of talents generated by a gender and ethnic-diverse organization becomes a priceless advantage. “Creativity thrives on diversity” (Morgan, 1989).
∙ Multicultural organizations are found to be better at problem solving, possess better ability 9
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to extract expanded meanings, and are more likely to display multiple perspectives and interpretations in dealing with complex issues.
∙ Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater variety of solutions to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources.
∙ Employees from diverse backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands. ∙ A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural understanding) allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis.
A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view provides a larger pool of ideas and experiences
Challenges of diversity in the workplace
Companies across a range of industries are embracing a more diverse workforce; but with these benefits also come some key obstacles to overcome, as there are many challenges of managing diversity in the workplace.
Below are the most common challenges of diversity in the workplace which are important to consider.
1. Communication barriers
Hiring employees from a range of cultures and backgrounds has fantastic benefits for businesses; but can occasionally result in communication or language barriers within a team.
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This can sometimes lead to frustration amongst employees and productivity loss. Embracing Business Diversity: Is Technology the Answer?
2. Employee requirements
Whether it's a VISA or specific cultural requirements, hiring employees from different countries can be tricky; especially if you are a relatively young company.
As well as posing a logistical challenge, it's important to remember that these accommodations can also sometimes be an added business cost to factor into your hiring plans.
3. Gender equality issues
Salary inequality between men and women has been a huge topic of discussion in recent years. Individuals that are treated unequally can become demotivated and often choose to leave, causing increases in staff turnover.
The Equal Pay Act aims to prevent gender equality issues by ensuring companies pay equally between women and men for equal work.
It is also important for employers to ensure the same equality is practiced during the hiring process as well as with career progression in terms of opportunities offered and promotions.
4. Generational differences
In teams where there is a wide age range, especially if the company is recruiting graduates, there may be some generational differences or generation gaps.
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This could potentially hinder discussions on certain subjects; millennials account for the majority of UK workers , which is evolving today’s corporate culture.
This is something to consider when you start your graduate recruitment plans, as individuals from other generations might struggle to adjust to any changes that occur.
To bridge the gap between generations, promote an office culture where all views are heard and sustain a collaborative environment.
5. Conflicting beliefs
Conflicts can arise in the workplace due to differences in religious, political or cultural beliefs, and unfortunately discrimination and prejudice still occurs in some corporate environments.
6. Disability discrimination
The workplace can be tough for employees with a physical or mental disability.
In a recent study on disability and employment 12% of employers are concerned that disabled employees will take more time off work and 19% believe that it is expensive to hire individuals with a disability due to costs involved in adapting the workplace.
With many offices not fully equipped with wheelchair access or no allowances for dogs, disabled individuals are still widely discriminated against today.
7. Isolated individuals
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Sometimes employees can feel left out or isolated when groups of other individuals with similar backgrounds and characteristics, form 'cliques' or social circles.
8. Time consuming implementation process
When thinking about the disadvantages of diversity in the workplace, one of the key issues is that implementing a diversity in the workplace policy can be a lengthy process involving research, time and resources.
It can also work out quite costly, if you decide to offer training to help bridge skills gaps for example. This can make it difficult, particularly for small businesses and startups to launch a diversity strategy.
However, there are always smaller, less costly positive changes that can be made to ensure all employees feel included and have a voice.
9. Resistance to change
In most companies it is common to find certain individuals that are resistant to change. "This is the way we've always done it" doesn't mean that it's the right way to do it now.
However, sometimes it can be difficult to convince these individuals that change can be a good thing which can inhibit the progress of a diversity and inclusion strategy.
How to promote diversity in the workplace?
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We have established there are some workplace diversity challenges employers face, but they are not impossible for companies of any size to overcome.
Now we explore some potential solutions to these diversity challenges in the workplace: 1. Identify the problems
Make the challenges of diversity an urgent topic of conversation; whether they are discussed in a weekly senior management meeting or shared amongst the whole team for feedback.
Frequently assess and evaluate your diversity processes and make improvements accordingly. 2. D&I strategy for success
Develop a clear D&I strategy. We recommend you seek advice and feedback from a diverse range of people in the business when it comes to your diversity and inclusion in the workplace strategy, individuals from different departments are likely to have different opinions!
3. Involve the whole team
When launching your diversity and inclusion strategy, it is a good idea to get input elsewhere across the business wherever possible.
You could consider starting a diversity and inclusion team internally to ensure you are meeting the standards, aims and objectives you've set out.
It might also be a good idea to do a regular 'desk swap' whereby you move individuals around, helping to prevent 'cliques' from being formed.
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4. Initiate mentoring schemes
Initiating a mentoring scheme can help to increase employee satisfaction and retain top talent and is one of the least costly diversity strategies that can be implemented to ensure all employees feel included and have a voice.
Find out more about how a mentoring scheme could benefit your business . 5. Offer training programmes
Offer a clear, professional development structure to all employees.
Bridge the digital skills gap between generations by offering computer learning training or offer language training for employees that are non-native English speakers.
It might also be a good idea to offer diversity training to certain team members, particularly within management or the HR department, helping to ensure they show compassion to colleagues in distress.
6. Hire bilingual or multilingual employees
Employing multilingual or bilingual staff can also help bridge the gap between different cultures and resolve any language barriers between English and non-English speaking employees.
7. Implement initiatives for gender equality
Businesses have a duty to demonstrate equality in the workplace and prevent gender 15
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discrimination, particularly with regards to hiring both men and women, paying equal salary and offering the same opportunities and promotions to both men and women.
Encouraging more women to work in tech is another prime example of encouraging gender equality in all job roles.
8. Accommodate disabilities
Support physically or mentally disabled individuals by providing disabled access, allowing service dogs at work and offering other initiatives to build a diverse workplace.
Find out other ways to manage mental health in the workplace .
9. Hold people accountable
It is important to hold people accountable if they are not embracing workplace diversity and inclusion or if they are discriminating against employees who have different characteristics or different ethnic or religious backgrounds to their own.
Put rules in place and stick to them, if there are individuals who do not accept a diverse office environment, then prove that you will not tolerate this behaviour.
Employees may need to be regularly reminded to keep personal beliefs and opinions separate to work, to help reduce the risk of disputes in the office.
10. Factor in costs and time restraints
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Ensure that you factor in all potential costs and time restraints during the initial planning stages of your diversity and inclusion strategy.
This will ensure that all your plans go ahead smoothly and prevent any costly, unwelcome surprises further down the line.
Required Tools for Managing Diversity
Effective managers are aware that certain skills are necessary for creating a successful, diverse workforce. First, managers must understand discrimination and its consequences. Second, managers must recognize their own cultural biases and prejudices (Koonce 2001). Diversity is not about differences among groups, but rather about differences among individuals. Each individual is unique and does not represent or speak for a particular group. Finally, managers must be willing to change the organization if necessary (Koonce 2001). Organizations need to learn how to manage diversity in the workplace to be successful in the future (Flagg 2002). Unfortunately, there is no single recipe for success. It mainly depends on the manager’s ability to understand what is best for the organization based on teamwork and the dynamics of the workplace. According to Roosevelt (2001), managing diversity is a comprehensive process for creating a work environment that includes everyone. When creating a successful diverse workforce, an effective manager should focus on personal awareness. Both managers and sassociates need to be aware of their personal biases. Therefore, organizations need to develop, implement, and maintain ongoing training, because a one-day session of training will not change people’s behaviors (Koonce 2001). Managers must also understand that fairness is not necessarily
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equality. There are always exceptions to the rule. Managing diversity is about more than equal employment opportunity and affirmative action (Losyk 1996). Managers should expect change to be slow, while at the same time encouraging change (Koonce 2001).
Another vital requirement when dealing with diversity is promoting a safe place for associates to communicate (Koonce 2001). Social gatherings and business meetings,
Findings & suggestions
After critically examining the literature and various research papers from different authors related with workforce diversity and its impact on productivity, it has been found that: An organization’s major objective is to earn profit and to enhance its productivity, no doubt that almost all the authors are saying that employing diversified workforce is the very essence in today’s scenario but to manage such a diversified workforce is a big challenge in front of the management. Hiring diversified workforce will definitely lead to improved productivity, but may prove to disaster
if not managed properly because not only the management but employees are also feeling some problems like language problem (which is acceptable and is not due to thoughts of the employees),
attitude clashes, and difference in perceptions, which is directly related to human behavior which ultimately affects the productivity of any organization.
After considering all the findings in the research it becomes a compulsion for the researchers to suggest, the ways to handle the shortcomings found during the survey. It is really a big matter of concern for all HR professionals as one side we say that we should include new trends in HR policies and on the other hand, the latest trend like workforce diversity is treated as a problem.
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However, this problem can be solved by adopting various policies like:
∙ Encouraging the use of common language in the organization among the employees ∙ By conducting various motivational and mentorship programs
∙ By keeping the channels of communication open among the employees and employers ∙ By encouraging employee participation
∙ Further one should accept the fact it is not the matter of culture in fact it is the matter of quality. Therefore, for improving productivity, quality has to be maintained and not thrown out
Conclusions
A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse work teams bring high value to organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit the workplace by creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and challenges. Management tools in a diverse workforce should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made up of diverse
cultures, so organizations need to learn how to adapt to be successful
References
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Black Enterprise. 2001. Managing a multicultural workforce. Black Enterprise Magazine (July).
Devoe, D. 1999. Managing a diverse workforce. San Mateo, CA: InfoWorld Media Group.
Esty, K., R. Griffin, and M. Schorr-Hirsh. 1995. Workplace diversity. A manager’s guide to solving problems and turning diversity into a competitive advantage. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation.
Flagg, A. 2002. Managing diverse workgroups successfully.
United Behavioral Health.
Human Rights Careers, (n.d,), Equality in the workplace: What does it mean? Equality in the Workplace: What Does It Mean? | Human Rights Careers
Koonce, R. 2001. Redefining diversity: It’s not just the right thing to do; it also makes good business sense. Training and Development(December).
Loysk, B. 1996. Managing a changing workforce: Achieving outstanding service with today’s employees. Davie, FL: Workplace Trends Publishing
Reynolds, K. (2017). 13 benefits and challenges of cultural diversity in the workplace. https://www.hult.edu/blog/benefits-challenges-cultural-diversity-workplace/
Robinson, K-S. 2002. U.S. must focus on diversity or face
decline in competitiveness. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). http://www.shrm.org
Taylor H. Cox, (Aug1991).“Managing cultural diversity: implications for organizational competitiveness”The Academy of Management Executive Vol.5 No.3 pp.45-56
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