Workplace Diversity
Workplace diversity refers to the diversity within an organizational workforce in terms of caste, racial background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality (Bond & Haynes, 2014). This course helped me in the learning the importance of effective workforce diversity management. I work in a multinational organization wherein we have people working from different parts of Asia, New Zealand, America and Europe. Working with these people has helped me widen my horizons and enhance my learning. One discussion point that hit me was stereotyping. I realized that I was also a part of this ill culture which stereotypes people on the basis of their background. Breaking stereotypes is the first step of managing diversity (McCann, Sparks & Kohntopp, 2017). Stereotypes eventually lead to bias.
Through the development of this course, I also understood the importance of trainings. In fact I recommended the same to my manager. One important thing that I learnt was that organizations must carefully manage people with disabilities in the organization. It is important that organizations do not discriminate against especially abled employees and offers equal employment opportunity to them. I noticed that I do not have a single differently abled person working with me as my colleague. This surprised me to a great extent. I discussed the same with my manager but he assured me that the organization does not discriminate.
Diversity within a workplace is a boon more than a bane. There can be increased incidences of conflict and lack of understanding. However, a diverse organization if managed effectively can improve individual learning of employees and create a positive work culture. Diverse workforce can also enhance openness and help teams look at a situation from several different perspectives (Davis, Frolova & Callahan, 2016). This is why a diverse organization must be managed competently in order to make the best of it.
Enduring characteristics of an individual are important personality traits of people. Individual personalities play a significant role in defining how they handle different situations. One of the most important things that I learnt through this course is the importance of self-reflection. We took several online personality tests which helped in a gaining a deeper insight about my own personality. The MBTI test defines 16 personality types based on 8 characteristics. This tool is largely helpful for individuals to identify their own personality traits better (Hancock, 2016). However, such a tool has its shortcomings and should ideally not be used by organizations to decide whether or not a candidate should be recruited (Judge & Zapata, 2015).
Effective Workforce Diversity Management
We also studied about the big five model of personality dimensions. Upon taking the test I scored high on extroversion and emotional stability. When I tried to understand the test results further, I realized that I would be best suited for a sales and marketing profile. This test therefore also helped me in understanding my career choices.
Risk taking is the ability of an individual to be open to taking risks. High risk taking managers are more open to risks. They make quick decisions as opposed to low risk taking managers. My manager is a low risk taker. This can be reflected upon the kind of clients we have. He often needs a lot of convincing if we need to explore a new geographic area to get clients. I believe that I would be a high risk taking manager because I am more open to challenges and unexplored situations. Personality of an individual has a significant impact on their working style and performance. I realized that I must continue to self-evaluate my performance in order to gain a better grip of my personality.
Motivation is a primary factor that largely impacts an employee’s performance as well as retention in the business. There are several theories that can be applied by businesses in order to keep their employees motivated. Employees can be motivated through several factors. Intensity, direction and persistence are the key to effective motivation in any business (Lazaroiu, 2015).
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs defined a clear hierarchy of five needs that need to be fulfilled in order to motivate an employee (Robertson, 2016). I realized that owing to the salary compensation offered to employees, a business fulfils their physiological needs. An employee’s colleagues, managers and the team within which he or she works can fulfil the employee’s social needs. Now the promotions and the appraisals within an organization are important to fulfil esteem needs of employees.
Besides this the working culture of the organization also plays a significant role in motivating employees. Employees look forward to working in a culture which is open, transparent and optimistic. On the other hand a poor working culture can be demotivating for employees. My organization is indeed a highly motivating place for me. This is largely because the team that I work in is filled with self-motivated people. Besides the hygiene factors given by Herzberg like salary, policy etc., the motivating factors also impact our performance positively. Our manager praises hard working employees and circulates a mail to everyone when any employee does a great job. Rewards and recognition are also motivating tools. Recently new employees joined our organization and I was given the responsibility to train them. Although this was extra work, I felt good that my manager trusted me enough to guide them. This feeling of being valued and trusted is also a strong motivating factor.
Importance of Trainings for Diversity Management
Leadership has always been an essential subject for me. This is because since I was really young, I have accepted leadership roles with a lot of responsibility as well as excitement. I was the class monitor and later the prefect head at school. I am an avid football player and for two years I was the captain of the school’s football team. These leadership experiences have helped me in opening my mind and widening my horizon.
This course helped me in reflecting upon my own leadership abilities and helped in understanding the importance of the same. We studied different leadership styles and I realized I am a democratic leader. My manager is also a democratic as well as a transformational leader. As per the path goal theory, a leader provides the followers with all the necessary resources, information and guidance and then helps them in achieving goals by adopting several leadership styles in the process. A participative leader encourages team members to be a part of the decision making process within the organization (Bolden, 2016). My manager does the same and he is also a participative leader.
One important thing that I learnt through a course was the difference between a manager and a leader. I realized that the leader that I wish to follow may or may not be working with me. This is where is also learnt about charismatic leadership. Charismatic leaders attract followers by their charisma and strong personality (Oshagbemi, 2017). When I think of charismatic leadership, I think of Steve Jobs. Even if he is no more, his interviews, books and quotes never fail to inspire me and guide me towards the path of following my intuition and accomplishing my goals by trusting the path that comes.
Change is the only constant. Organizations are the best place to understand the same. Organizations consistently undergo several changes and it is important that these changes are managed in an effective manner (Benn, Edwards & Williams, 2014). The biggest change that my organization is undergoing since the last few years is increasing competition and changing technologies. Resistance to change is a natural state. Increasing competition in the industry put additional pressure on the workforce. Therefore the resistance to change was implicit and deferred. A lot of employees felt demotivated and even left the organization. It took the organization sometime to address the change in an effective manner and deal with it. Post which, new employees were hired and innovation was focussed upon. The organization launched two new products in order to fight the competition and sustain the market place. The recent changes in technology are aslo being adopted effectively by my organization. We have started using Facebook for internal communication. This allows us to create a culture of openness and communication. As a firm, we adopt the Kotter’s eight step model in order to address the change that the organization witnesses.
Change management is essential for the success of any organization. The seniors of the business must take a step towards ensuring that the organization accepts business changes. The employees within the business must also be open to changes but at the same time their resistance is only natural and hence must be addressed by the leaders of the business (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). Active change agents must be adopted to ensure that an organization is consistently growing. This course helped me understand step by step processes to address the change and I would ensure that I would adopt the same within my team.
References
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge. United Kingdom.
Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and policy implications. Social Issues and Policy Review, 8(1), pp.167-201.
Davis, P.J., Frolova, Y. and Callahan, W., 2016. Workplace diversity management in Australia: what do managers think and what are organisations doing?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(2), pp.81-98.
Hancock, D., 2016. To test or not to test: Assessing personality traits. Practice Management, 26(5), pp.23-25.
Judge, T.A. and Zapata, C.P., 2015. The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), pp.1149-1179.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, 14, p.97.
McCann, J.T., Sparks, B.H. and Kohntopp, T.F., 2017. Leadership Integrity and Diversity in the Workplace. Research in Economics and Management, 2(5), p.177.
Oshagbemi, T., 2017. Leadership and Management in universities: Britain and Nigeria (Vol. 14). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Robertson, F., 2016. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In Gower Handbook of Internal Communication (pp. 143-148). Routledge. United Kingdom.
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