The Importance of Diversity Policy in the Workplace
Question:
Discuss about the Human resource management in developing country.
Keeping the importance of management of diversity in the workplaces in consideration, the diversity policy is formulated with the purpose of documenting the commitment and the objectives of the organization in its endeavor of promoting and supporting diversities in the workforce. This in turn indicates towards the fact that our organization views all the employees as equal, irrespective of their social, ethnical, gender, sexual orientation and other attributes.
The policy incorporates the idea that presence of people of different diversities in the above-mentioned aspects not only adds to the talent pool of our company but also enhance the scope of the same to venture and succeed in different arenas, which is helped by their diverse specializations and characteristics (Harvey & Allard, 2015). Promoting diversity also increases popularity of the organization not only among the workers but also among their clientele.
The term “Workplace Diversity” encompasses differences among the workers in an organization in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, culture, skills, cognitive style, language, marital status, career responsibilities, job functions, sexual orientation and personality (Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich, 2013).
The primary problem, which a diverse workforce faces in an organization, is the threat of discrimination and assessment of their capabilities and potentials in terms of indicators, which include their race, age, culture, gender and even sexual orientation. However, under the legal framework, discrimination of any unfair forms in the workplaces is illegal and is subjected to penalty (Guimond et al., 2013). There have been several acts, which have been implemented to encourage diversity and to save the diverse workforces from any kind of discrimination, which the diversity policy of our organization recognizes. These include the following:
- a) Age Discrimination Act (2004)
- b) Disability Discrimination Act (1992)
- c) Racial Discrimination Act (1975)
- d) Sex Discrimination Act (1984)
Taking these into account the diversity policy of the company encourages it to adapt diversities in their workforces and to create equal opportunities for each of the workers according to their capabilities, with no discrimination in the following aspects:
- Job offers
- Recruitment processes
- Interview procedures
- Employment terms
- Pay-scale
- Employee benefits, promotion and other employee empowerment facilities
- Discipline and dismissal policies
As can be seen from the existing organizational frameworks across the globe, the diversities in the workforce of the companies are often subjected to different types of discriminations, both from their employers as well as from the perspectives of their co-workers. These discriminations can be both voluntary as well as involuntary. Both of these types of discriminations discouraging diversities hamper the individuals as well as the organizations. Therefore, it becomes essential for the concerned organization, under this situation to acknowledge the aspects of presence of different types of diversities in the workforce and to encourage the same, not only for the purpose of creating a healthy work environment for all the employees but for also adding to their motivation to work harder (Forstenlechner, Lettice & Özbilgin, 2012.
Given the fact that diversity in the workplaces has been becoming one of the obvious components in the contemporary global commercial scenario the presence of a robust diversity policy framework is of immense importance in the organization. The impacts of the diversity policy framework are expected to influence the following arenas under the operational framework of the organization:
- Diversified workforce
- The organization itself
- External aspects and the clientele of the organization
What is Workplace Diversity?
The presence of diversities in the workforce and also the presence of unfair discrimination with respect to personal diversified attributed of the employees have considerable negative impacts on the mental and physical well being of the workers and also hamper their long term career growth. Due to presence of diversities, which include racial, cultural, background and linguistic aspects, the workers often face challenges in the following aspects:
- Understanding their job roles
- Proving their capabilities
- Communication
- Understanding the company policies
- Incorporating and accepting the others’ diversities
- Overcoming the subtle discriminations done with them
- Progressing in their professional domains (Brouwers et al., 2016)
The concept of diversity had been present in the organizational framework in the international scenario for decades. However, in the previous periods, the concept of incorporation and promotion of these diversities in the workforces had not been prevalent in the organizations. In the contemporary period, the overall commercial culture has been changing and with time, more and more organizations across the world have been trying to address the diversity in their workforces (Sabharwal, (2014). The companies incorporating diversities have also been seen to be experiencing increase in their productivity and goodwill, both among their workers as well as among their clienteles (Guillaume et al., 2017).
Keeping this into consideration, our company frames the diversity policy, such that the diversities of the employees are not only acknowledged but are also encouraged in order to incorporate the same in the production process (Wambui et al., 2013).
The diverse workforce in the companies often helps in the aspect of catering to varied nature of clienteles. This is especially true in the contemporary period with more and more companies venturing outside their home countries and exploring different markets and product and service delivery. This expansion of their operational activities require workers with different skills, specializations, linguistic capabilities as well as inherent talents, which in turn makes it crucial for the companies to incorporate diversities (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). A diverse workforce not only increases the productivity of the organizations but also helps in understanding the varied needs of their existing and potential clients, thereby increasing the goodwill of the company. Thus, proper diversity management in the concerned company can have positive implications on the clientele of the company itself, thereby benefiting the company in the long run (Downey et al., 2015).
The content of the diversity policy, with respect to the three arenas, which are expected to experience the implication of the same, is discussed as follows:
The primary area where the diversity policy of the concerned organization is expected to have considerable implications is the workforce of the company. Keeping this into account, the following aspects are kept into consideration while formulating the policy:
- a) Employee confidentiality- One of the primary aspects of the employees which the company needs to respect is the confidentiality, especially regarding their personal attributes, including religion, cultural background, ethnicity and sexual orientation (Jonsen et al., 2013). This is one of the primary content of the diversity policy of the concerned organization (Freedland et al., 2016). The diversity policy of our company, in this context, has the provision of maintaining anonymity of the employees, especially in the sensitive cases where the opinions of the employees will be collected. Any poll or voting which involves the employees will be done only after asking for their permission and post their satisfaction regarding the confidentiality of their identity as well as individual characteristics.
- b) Equality in opportunities- Another important aspect, which the policy focuses upon, is the provision of equal opportunities and scopes of growth of the employees in the organization itself, based on their individual talents and capabilities and not on their race, caste, religion or other attributes which are not relevant in their professional domains. In this aspect, the people with special abilities are specifically considered and the diversity policy of our company provides operational framework such that the people with special abilities in the company do not feel left out or less capable than the others do. Under the diversity policy of the company, the diverse characteristics of the employees, especially their personal attributes are respected and they do not become a parameter of judgment of their professional capabilities in front of their employers or co-employees.
- c) Employee flexibility- The primary working notion behind the formulation and implementation of diversity policy in the organization is that each employee is an individual himself or herself, with characteristics, both professional as well as personal, being different from one another. Keeping this into consideration the policy framework intends to make scopes of equal accessibility of special psychological support. The diversity policy of our organization, keeping this into account, provides special and required arrangements for differently able employees as well as for women pre and post pregnancy such that they can work from the comfort of home or in a more comfortable space in the office according to their needs. Other employees are also eligible to such facilities according to their needs.
- d) Communication- One of the primary aspects in the work environment of the organization, which the diversity policy of the concerned company indents to facilitate, is the aspect of free flow of ideas and communication among the diversified workforce of the company. The barriers in this aspect, which include racial, linguistic and other barriers, are intended to be removed under this framework (Zhang & Venkatesh, 2013). The policy, keeping this into account, helps in creating an inclusive environment for all the workers, where all their languages and cultures are respected and given equal importance, such that no worker feels out of place. In case of any language or communication based hurdle faced by any employee, under the diversity policy of our organization, the same can approach the relevant personnel and also the human resource department to address the issue.
It becomes the primary responsibility of the management of the organization itself to modify the overall work environment of the company to incorporate and encourage diversity in the workforce. For this purpose the diversity policy intends to contain the following aspects:
- a) Values- The values of the organization need to be linked with the diversity policy, which in turn is supposed to be a reflection of the work culture of the company. If the policy is not supported by the values of the company, then there may not be any positive effect of forming and implementing any diversity policy. Keeping this into consideration the diversity policy incorporates the value for respecting diversities of all the employees in the company itself.
- b) Removal of discrimination- There often exist many deliberate as well as involuntary discriminating aspects among the employees in the organizations and often these discriminations are created based on the individual and extremely personal diversities of the individual employees, which are most of the times irrelevant to the jobs they are assigned to do (Vickers, 2016). The policy of our organization helps in ruling out any kind of unfair discrimination on part of the employers. In case of any discrimination on part of any employer or co worker requisite measures are taken by the company and there also remains scopes for punishments of the offenders and compensation to the victims.
- c) Assistance- Under the policy framework, there remains the provision of adequate support and assistance for the employees who feel mistreated or discriminated by the company as well as by the co-workers. The support needs to be provided in terms of professional assistance as well as personal and individual level provision of comfort and encouragement to make the diverse workforce easy and comfortable in the operational framework which the diversity policy intends to do.
The diversity policy also intends to be positively contributing to the clientele of the company in the following aspects:
- a) Impacts on customers- The presence of an operational framework promoting diversity in the workforce, automatically increases the goodwill of the company among the customers. Keeping this into consideration, the policy contains provision of promoting the diversities of the employees in front of the existing and potential clientele.
- b) Impact on supply chain providers- The diversity policy of the concerned organization also makes it prominent in front of the different supply side providers of the company that the company maintains and promotes diversity of every aspect in their employee population (Garnero, Kampelmann & Rycx, 2014).
Following are the procedures in which the policy of the concerned company is expected to implement:
- a) Equality- Under this policy framework, our company creates an environment of equality for its diverse workforce, where each of the employees feel equally enabled and valued irrespective of their intrinsic and cultural diversities and where they are assessed and awarded based on their capability and contribution to the concerned organization. The employees of this organization are valued and rewarded on the basis of their professional capabilities and not on other attributes. This gives them the scope to work independently, without being intimidated by other employees and without shying away from showing their inherent characteristics.
- b) Provision of training and skill development- Under the diversity policy of the company, each employee working for the organizations is entitles to their relevant skill development and other capacity augmenting programs, irrespective of their personal and professional diversities. The provision of such programs is not based on their personal diversities, rather such trainings will be provided in order to utilize the diversities of the employees in such that they can understand the goals of the company as well as the needs of their clientele better (Lindsey et al., 2015).
- c) Training to senior management- Under the diversity policy of the company, not only the employees of the company but also the higher management of the organization gets training on the aspects of diversity. The management is included under the training proovisions in order to understand the benefits of the presence of diversity in their workforce, in the aspect of affecting the strategic decisions and implications of the organization (Kulik, 2014). Special emphasis is also given to the specially able people as well as to the female workforce, in this aspect, as they are often subjected to discriminations based on their personal characteristics.
- d) Gender equality- Gender is not an assessing factor of the employee capabilities of our organizations. Rather our company works with the objective of empowering our female employees by providing them all the necessary training and skill development procedures as well as the facilities which they need to work freely, without any intimidation in our company.
- e) Human Resource- The primary responsibility of managing the employees of an organization such that their capabilities can be enhanced and efficiently used in the production process of the company, lies in the hands of the human resource management of the concerned organization. Keeping this into consideration, the HR employees of our company are rigorously trained such that they can efficiently implement the terms and conditions of the diversity policy of the company for the betterment of the workers as well as that of the organization (Budhwar & Debrah, 2013).
- f) Organizational staffs-Trainings and awareness generation are conducted among the common organizational employees of the company such that they can understand the negative implications of any kind of irrelevant discrimination.
- g) Surveys- Annual surveys also need to be conducted with the employees in all the levels to know about their perceptions regarding the efficiencies and usefulness of the diversity policy and amendments and modifications need to be done according to their opinions and grievances.
The policy of our company has been in action from 24 February, 2017 and the same is applicable to all the employees, board members and other members of our company. The company also encourages the employees to abide by the diversity policy of our organization and to circulate the policy as well as its objectives across all the strata of the company. The policy is always a work in progress, with regular monitoring, scrutiny and contribution from all the employees of our company.
References
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Brouwers, E. P. M., Mathijssen, J., Van Bortel, T., Knifton, L., Wahlbeck, K., Van Audenhove, C., … & Tófoli, L. F. (2016). Discrimination in the workplace, reported by people with major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study in 35 countries. BMJ open, 6(2), e009961.
Budhwar, P. S., & Debrah, Y. A. (Eds.). (2013). Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.
Chrobot-Mason, D., & Aramovich, N. P. (2013). The psychological benefits of creating an affirming climate for workplace diversity. Group & Organization Management, 38(6), 659-689.
Downey, S. N., Werff, L., Thomas, K. M., & Plaut, V. C. (2015). The role of diversity practices and inclusion in promoting trust and employee engagement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(1), 35-44.
Forstenlechner, I., Lettice, F., & Özbilgin, M. F. (2012). Questioning quotas: applying a relational framework for diversity management practices in the United Arab Emirates. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(3), 299-315.
Freedland, M., Bogg, A., Cabrelli, D., Collins, H., Countouris, N., Davies, A. C. L., … & Prassl, J. (Eds.). (2016). The contract of employment. Oxford University Press.
Garnero, A., Kampelmann, S., & Rycx, F. (2014). The heterogeneous effects of workforce diversity on productivity, wages, and profits. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 53(3), 430-477.
Guillaume, Y. R., Dawson, J. F., Otaye?Ebede, L., Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2017). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.
Guimond, S., Crisp, R. J., De Oliveira, P., Kamiejski, R., Kteily, N., Kuepper, B., … & Sidanius, J. (2013). Diversity policy, social dominance, and intergroup relations: Predicting prejudice in changing social and political contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(6), 941.
Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2015). Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson.
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1, 15-29.
Jonsen, K., Tatli, A., Özbilgin, M. F., & Bell, M. P. (2013). The tragedy of the uncommons: Reframing workforce diversity. Human Relations, 66(2), 271-294.
Kulik, C. T. (2014). Working below and above the line: the research–practice gap in diversity management. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(2), 129-144.
Lindsey, A., King, E., Hebl, M., & Levine, N. (2015). The impact of method, motivation, and empathy on diversity training effectiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(3), 605-617.
Rice, M. F. (2015). Diversity and public administration. ME Sharpe.
Sabharwal, M. (2014). Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), 197-217.
Vickers, L. (2016). Religious freedom, religious discrimination and the workplace. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Wambui, T. W., Wangombe, J. G., Muthura, M. W., Kamau, A. W., & Jackson, S. M. (2013). Managing Workplace Diversity: A Kenyan Pespective. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(16).
Zhang, X., & Venkatesh, V. (2013). Explaining employee job performance: The role of online and offline workplace communication networks. Mis Quarterly, 37(3), 695-722.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
