Why has diversity in the workplace been given so much attention lately?
Questions:
1.Why has diversity in the workplace been given so much attention lately?
2.What are the workforce diversity challenges and opportunities confronting new managers in The 21st century?
1. Diverse workforce in organisations encompasses work among employees who belong to varied cultures, backgrounds and viewpoints. Ones those are capable of creating inclusiveness in workplace outperforms their competitors (BDC, n.d.). Diversity in workplace allows employers to engage themselves in getting best possible sequential search whether it is of men, women or minorities. There had been lot of pressure seen between diversity and job security that encourages companies hiring diverse workforce. By hiring more women and other minority groups in this male dominated industry, significant attention can be provided in workplace while recognising values of diversity. Although there are many companies who have taken initiatives to improve workplace environment, still obstacles or ‘glass ceilings’ to accomplish their personal and career province remain prominent. Here ‘glass ceilings’ is a phrase, can also be called metaphor, which was introduced in the year 1980. It represents artificial and invisible barrier that blocks minority groups and women from advancing up in the corporate ranking and managerial positions (Shaw, 1993).
Organisations and employers have responded in various ways to the market and institutional modification in last twenty years in which they have tried to reduce labour costs by reducing operational costs or moving to countries with low wage. Some have followed a pattern of reorganising workplace by adopting various change policies to reduce cost and bring optimisation. Others who have restricted themselves in fixed guidelines had to suffer low profits. Diversification is essential to increase flexibility and modernisation which can be made by adopting new technology and diversity in work culture (RECRUITER.COM, 2018). According to Max Weber, Bureaucratic organisations are always based on logic, legitimate authority and order. His theory has always prioritized efficiency without creating discrimination in work place. Weber has mentioned that hiring of employees shall be on efficiency basis rather than caste or sexual discrimination (Caramela, 2018). Flexibility and diversity comes in alignment as both of them require workers who are highly trained to perform variety of tasks and be a part of self managed team. Today’s technological innovations demands lesser workers than before and thus maintaining quality among them becomes important.
Working women has been an important topic lately for over last two-three decades. Big corporations are taking decisions regarding improvement of work experience for women and minority groups by making strategies which break through the ‘glass ceiling’. Glass ceilings have always limited advancement of women and minority groups where white males have been dominating and holding top position in corporate. Minority groups are always distributed in low level groups while very few are allowed with promotions (Cotter, 2001). However, many organisations have felt that women should be encouraged to remain in their career for longer time as their participation has many times proven successful for the companies. Many others believe that needs of women have lead themselves in creation of self imposed glass ceiling by not believing in themselves. Earlier, women favoured for family and children and brought absenteeism in industries but nowadays many women are able to manage both work and family. Successful women entrepreneurs in today’s corporate industry like Sara Blakely (founder of Spanx), Weili Dai (Cofounder Marvel Technology) and Yang Lan (Cofounder SunMedia) are few among many others who have proven their managerial power over men (Forbes, 2018).
What are the workforce diversity challenges and opportunities confronting new managers in the 21st century?
Initiatives taken by many companies to build team work had allowed minorities and women take part equally in decision making processes. Famous experiment made by Hawthrone and Elton Mayo have also proved that success of the organisations depends largely upon the work environment and joint endeavour. According to the experiment, organisations where people were judged on the basis of caste and gender showed less improvement and brought resistance among co worker (The Economist, 2008). Mismatch in communication between minority job candidates and employers troubles workplace diversity which is the reason many organisations have globalised their business environment to survive in this competitive market. In this 21st century, entrepreneurs have adopted more logical way of hiring employees which restricts caste discrimination and gender criticism as well as has been able to eliminate ‘glass ceilings’ (Johns, 2013). Therefore it can be said that in order to sustain in global market and bring more scientific approach towards employment, workplace diversity have been given so much attention lately.
Increase of globalisation in this 21st century among people from different castes, culture and beliefs have been seen like never before. People nowadays do not prefer working in a narrow-minded marketplace and want themselves to be a part of global economy while competing in every continent (Mangan, 2017). Therefore people belonging to both profiteering and non profiteering organisations are adopting diversity in workforce to bring in more creativity and modernisation. Workforce diversity corresponds to both challenge and opportunity for new managers and ensuring optimum utilization of human resource has become core objective of companies (CHOUDHARY, 2012).
Capitalizing on workforce multiplicity has been a significant issue faced by the managements since this process eliminates distinction between people irrespective of age, caste, gender or race. In order to enable efficient diversity in workforce, many theoretical concepts have been laid by researchers that can bring effectiveness in organisations. Leadership quality and open communication is one of the important factors that are stressed upon and managers are forced to make bias decisions without making any discrimination (Kuusela, 2013). Although many challenges facing diversity could be recognised in today’ work environment like interpersonal conflicts, lack of unity among team members and believing in male supremacy. Mangers have to face these kinds of issues wherein they also have to suffer job security and personal rivalry. Taking decisions in diverse work environment is another challenge which managers have to face every day in the form of language or work incapability among employees. Intervening team members individually makes others feel biased attitude in their leader (Shaban, 2016).
While managing diversity, managers has to be affirmative in his commands and actions while hiring women and minority groups for which they face team member’s conflicts. In order to give value to diversity, many organisations have adapted equal assortment of work among employees and have taken steps by introducing programmes and regular consultancy so that more people are educated with scientific approach of managing workforce (Bruitien, 2017). According to Fiedler’s Contingency Trait Theory, managers or leaders must identify a management style that can help gaining organisational effectiveness. His theory indirectly supported diversity in work nature so that managers are able to bring out best from their human resources irrespective of gender and caste (FLINSCH, 2017).
After making research on the topic, diversity in workforce shows many opportunities for today’s managers as diversity will not only foster employee creativity but also solve problems between them. Preparing of 21st century workforce acknowledges valuing diversity and bringing in diversity trend. That means totalling of individuals and groups efforts will bring a cultural transformation in every workplace. Although this transformation requires managers undertaking interaction with major key factors like empowerment, leadership and institutionalization. Organisations with complex issues require multifaceted approach and initiative to bring in diversity that needs to be in parallel to organisational mission (Bedi, n.d.). For example, in a rescue team or security companies, selection can be done on the basis of physique and intellect rather than ignoring age and mental condition. Here classism can be avoided as both the requirements have nothing to do with caste or sex.
Companies that manage cultural diversity while hiring people will always gain advantages over the others. These organisations get an insight into the present market needs which consists of women and other minority groups. People with diverse backgrounds can be more creative than groups with homogeneous backgrounds and thus heterogeneous groups are likely to perform in better ways (Madhusudan, 2017). Since wider range of people perspective and thoughts are reviewed before analysing any issue, fair and effective results can be recognised by organisations. Responding environmental and workforce change provides competitive advantage also as it helps in providing customers with high quality service. Labelling women and minority groups along with immigrants differently from the majority dissimilate them from organisational objectives which lead to an unhealthy work environment. But today’s managers have given much emphasis on understanding their qualities which have some extent helped in developing multicultural and multinational organisations. By protecting cultural values and skills, ethical status of the companies also perceive respect from nation while gaining respect from their peers (Ewoh, 2013).
Manager’s who excels in managing diverse workforce are the ones who eliminates cultural and language barriers by organising workforce in systematic and thought out manner. In addition, the complexity in workforce in multinational organisation have given a new approach to the mangers for involving diversity in their work nature by involving local public to their organisations (Sharma, 2010). This not only helps in promoting their brand in other country but makes employees feel themselves as a part of their organisation. Therefore it can be said that workforce diversity is one of the best tools for today’s mangers to bring in change in their companies according to the current market demand and break through the ‘glass ceilings’ (Mollel, 2015). To bring large scale work transformation and enable quality management, workforce diversity has to be incorporated.
References
BDC, n.d. Why workplace diversity benefits your business. [Online] Available at: https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/employees/recruit/pages/business-benefits-workforce-diversity.aspx [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Bedi, P., n.d. Workforce Diversity Management: Biggest Challenge Or Opportunity For 21st Century Organizations. [Online] Available at: https://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol16-issue4/Version-3/P01643102107.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Bruitien, A., 2017. 50 Must-Read Articles on Diversity in the Workplace: Valuable Insights on the Challenges, Benefits, and Best Practices for Cultivating Diversity. [Online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/50-must-read-articles-diversity-workplace-valuable-best-aj-brustein [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Caramela, S., 2018. The Management Theory of Max Weber. [Online] Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-max-weber/ [Accessed 10 April 2018].
CHOUDHARY, P.D.a.S., 2012. WORKFORCE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR 21ST CENTURY MANAGERS. [Online] Available at: https://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2012/April/ZIJMR/7_ZIJMR_APRIL12_VOL2_ISSUE4.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Cotter, D.A., 2001. The Glass Ceiling effect. [Online] Available at: https://www.vanneman.umd.edu/papers/CotterHOV01.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Ewoh, A.I.E., 2013. Managing and Valuing Diversity: Challenges to Public Managers in the 21st Century. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44792675_Managing_and_Valuing_Diversity_Challenges_to_Public_Managers_in_the_21st_Century [Accessed 10 April 2018].
FLINSCH, P., 2017. Contingency Management Theory. [Online] Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/contingency-management-theory/ [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Forbes, 2018. Entrepreneurs. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/pictures/lml45effkg/the-worlds-most-powerful-female-entrepreneurs/#493678a71e48 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Johns, M.L., 2013. Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Structural, Cultural, and Organizational Barriers Preventing Women from Achieving Senior and Executive Positions. [Online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3544145/ [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Kuusela, K., 2013. Diversity management Challenges and possibilities. [Online] Available at: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/64004/Ksenia%20Kuusela%20Bachelors%20Thesis%202013%20Diversity%20Management.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Madhusudan, P., 2017. Why does workplace diversity matter. [Online] Available at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employee-relations/why-does-workplace-diversity-matter-16362?utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interstitial&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-day [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Mangan, J., 2017. Diversity At Work Is Essential, And It’s Everyone’s Responsibility. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2017/10/05/diversity-at-work-is-essential-and-its-everyones-responsibility/#48c298981537 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Mollel, E.R.1., 2015. Workforce diversity management and global organizational growth in the 21st century. [Online] Available at: https://www.modernrespub.org/jsrs/pdf/2015/September/Mollel%20et%20al.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2018].
RECRUITER.COM, 2018. Diversity Resources. [Online] Available at: https://www.recruiter.com/diversity.html [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Shaban, A., 2016. Managing and Leading a Diverse Workforce: One of the Main Challenges in Management. [Online] Available at: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042816311119/1-s2.0-S1877042816311119-main.pdf?_tid=dcb35e8b-c483-48ad-9501-c7bd34a254be&acdnat=1523341689_61452b5728252a52215f96e885f91f55 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Sharma, A., 2010. Managing diversity in the workplace. [Online] Available at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employee-engagement/managing-diversity-in-workplace-289 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Shaw, D.P.C.R.M.S.-R.a.H.I.H., 1993. Glass Ceiling Commission – The Impact of the Glass Ceiling and Structural Change on Minorities and Women. [Online] Available at: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.in/&httpsredir=1&article=1128&context=key_workplace [Accessed 10 April 2018].
The Economist, 2008. The Hawthorne effect. [Online] Available at: https://www.economist.com/node/12510632 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
