The Importance of Communication and Coordination in Managing a Diverse Workforce
Discuss about the Diversity Management for Understanding Organizational Culture.
Today, diversity management is a challenge in every organization given the fact that employees are from varied social, cultural and economic background. Kochan et al. (2003) have studied that organizational approach determines the impact of diversity on employee performance. In the offices of the US, incidence of discrimination is evident everywhere to some extent. Going by the theory of similarity-attraction, “people are more likely to be attracted to others who are similar to themselves than to others who are different from themselves” (Paludi, 2012, p.2). It is the responsibility of team leader to manage diversity in the manner so that every employee feels equal and motivated to work together. With efficient diversity management, employees can find themselves involved in the organization (Kundu, 2009). According to Kundu and Malhan (2009, p.191), “Competitive advantage of a company can be generated from human resources (HR) and company performance is influenced by a set of effective HRM practices”. A systematic training schedule of an organization is necessary. This can bring about loyalty of employees and help them pursue the goals objectively. Training shows the commitment of a firm towards its staff. Also, it will help even out differences between cultures. A common approach towards attainment of goals will be followed therefore (Benefits of training for employees, n.d.). One needs to ensure equal treatment for all employees. They should be respected for their role no matter what their rank is in the official set up (Dubey, 2009). This will ensure equality where irrespective of any kind of demographic difference also the employees are respected. Elements like “racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice” cause discrimination in any business set up (Kenneth et al., 2007, p.39). Appraisal of employees is a key component of diversity training program (Lambert and Myers, 2009; Triana, 2017). The main idea is to understand what the strong or weak aspects are of each worker. A company can identify one’s need for training by implementing schemes of incentives and rewards (Banu & Umamaheswari, 2009). With a proper appraisal system in place, one can understand the level of performance and integrity of an employee base characterized by divergence of cultures (Jabeen, 2011). Team collaboration in the workplace is important and helps reduce diversities in cultures. Ways of communication differs between cultures. For instance, in western culture, ways of communicating are direct or straightforward. Unlike this, for other cultures, communication could be indicative, i.e. certain gestures could decide what message is being communicated.
The Role of Culture in Organizational Management
When a Japanese says yes it often indicates he is listening but for an American manager it might seem like he is answering in affirmative to something (Brett et al., 2006).
In order to resolve such problems, the team leader should initiate and bring about communication between team members such that they may agree with each other on certain issues (Sweeny & McFarlin, 2012). Studies have shown that a formal HR policy is imperative in order to boost morale in employees as non-managerial staff feel the need of some kind of guidance even if management is adept at handling diverse staff needs (Cooke & Saini, 2010). Today, the problem lies not only in the diverse workforce that exists in every organization but a lack of strategy that enables employees from all cultures to come together and work in harmony (Cox, 1991; Fernandez, 1991). A crisis can occur when manager is restricted by his prejudices and therefore fails to make optimum utilization of his workforce (Barak, 2013, p.2). In ‘No Name’, there is a serious lack of HR strategy to handle diversity issues as a result of which different employees are not willing to work in coordination. The issue of physical disability also needs to be taken into consideration since the company’s subsidiaries in China is losing talent by dismissing disabled people. The purpose of the strategy at No Name is to provide an inclusive environment for the workers. This can help every employee attain his full potential. This will give birth to a cultural context that can benefit everyone. (Rosado, 2006).
Culture in an organization symbolizes the association between different groups or teams of employees functioning in their respective roles in an organization. Organizational culture is the core of management. This signifies group behavior or collaboration. Their behavior will comprise their ways of thinking, feeling and activities in the context of the organizational features and goals. Behavioural patterns of employees are characterized by their beliefs and thoughts. (Alvesson, 2012, p.1). The culture of an organization like ‘No Name’ will also comprise of the meaning that the employees find within the workplace. This involves the way they feel about the company and its activities (O’Donnell & Boyle, 2008, p.viii). behavioural patterns of teams are often determined by cultural variations. One may say that ‘culture and leadership’ are interconnected (Schein, 2010, p.xi). First, leaders help in determining the organization’s culture itself. Secondly, when the culture is defined already, the type of leadership is also reflected or defined. Thirdly, when the elements of a cultural set up becomes outdated, leaders should immediately initiate change in the business policies. Hence the prime necessity of a leader is to understand the appropriate culture of the workplace first and then go with it. If changes are to be effected, they should involve a systematic process and cannot happen overnight. Cultural changes mostly ends with changing leaders at the top.
Leadership and Cultural Change in the Workplace
McShane et al (2011) observed that leaders of an organization need to bring changes to the culture of an organization unless the values of the top level management is modified accordingly. Transformational leaders can however initiate new changes with time. This is usually a challenging task because many stakeholders might not be ready to accept the same. However if effective changes are implemented, this can bring success to the organization. Another crucial aspect of management involves social action and cultural significance generated for the workers. This will involve, imparting the employees with knowledge of understanding in a desirable manner. This is possible when they are able to understand the vision of the organization. This is the job of the managers to create and modify perspectives of employees. (Seeger, et al, 2003, pp.246-247). Culture may be rightly viewed as a process of thinking of individuals. It might not be manageable and it is better to monitor the same with the help of cultural awareness. Changing the culture does not help always (Waller, 2004, p.2).
The basic problem in ‘No Name” is lack of coordination and communication between different working teams. Since it is an aircraft manufacturing company, the need is to integrate the work processes of each team to come up with quality products to do away with complains from both government and non-government customers. As an organizational leader one should focus on maintaining coordination between each team and encourage them to consider each other’s views and opinions before deciding a common approach towards goal accomplishment. The need is to teach team members to keep in mind that although they have come from different teams with different work responsibilities, as a part of the overall organization they have a common mission which they need to accomplish through proper coordination of team skills and knowledge.
Performance management involves the process of planning and policies formulated by the management for assessing performance of employees. Managing performance also involves providing them with the right kind of motivation and rewards along with feedback which can help them give the best performance. A crucial aspect of performance management includes engaging the most suited workers for the appropriate task for attaining optimum output of performance (Cardy & Leonard, 2014, p.3). According to Otley (1999) five issues can be considered for a performance management plan. However these issues will keep changing and need to be modified according to market changes. These include performance appraisal in the context of company’s objectives, expected performance level, and rewards on meeting the expectation. In case of Wal-Mart managers hold small meetings in their rooms where the representatives of the company can meet their suppliers and negotiate about deals to purchase the products (Cardy & Leonard, 2014, p.8). This helps in keeping costs low. Another way of doing the same is the focus of Wal-Mart on products which are made in nations with cheap labor availability. They are not much concerned about producing in the US with higher labor cost in order to ensure better quality. (Chandler & Werther, 2013). In ‘No Name’ there is serious issue of lack of performance reviews. This is necessary not only to keep track of performance level but also to keep employees on toes to give their best performance.
The Impact of Performance Management on Employee Performance
Training employees need to be an intrinsic part of organization’s strategies and since it helps to develop the knowledge base and skill level of employees. In order to boost employee performance, training needs to be designed in alignment with the performance objectives of the employees (Vasantham & Swarnalatha, n.d., p.66). Although the associated downtime can be a drawback, training has a long term impact since it increases performance level of employees as well as act as strong motivating factor (Elnaga & Imran, 2013). Training can also create a positive relationship between employees and customers, for instance in tourism industry (Kusluvan, 2003, p.309). In ‘No Name’ employees depend mostly on online resources which do not consider the needs of individual employees. Strategic training programs need to develop skills of every employee. Employee feedback acts as motivational factor (Worsch, 2004) and so proper feedback channel is also very important. Moreover, managers will feel confident to delegate duties and responsibilities to trained employees (Ohabunwa, 1999) as training makes them more effective and productive (Scott & Clothier, 1977; Obisi, 2011).
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