Introduction/ Background to the Problem
As the world keeps changing, organizations tend to adopt new human resource practices to gain competitive advantages. Diversity management is among the methods that organizations in the 21 st Century have apprehended. Diversity in the workplace is believed to build a stronger brand, promote personal growth and development, and increase creativity, among other benefits. However, the management of Diversity across several nations is a challenge when firms globalize and cannot enhance performance. When firms within the retail industry globalize, they may expand rapidly and pose a management problem ( Jain & Pareek, 2019). The effectiveness and efficiency of human resources to perform tasks across all business units may be sabotaged by cross-national Diversity.
Business Practices Related to the issue of Diversity.
Diversity management can drive an organization towards realizing its vision, mission and objectives provided effective strategies are implemented. An organization should develop programs and policies that favor employee inclusion, promotion, and retention from different cultures and backgrounds ( Sharma, 2016). Below are some of the robust practices organizations may adopt:
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Creating a Sense of Belonging
Human resource tends to treat Diversity and inclusion as a single initiative owned. The strategy sounds good; however, it is challenging to realize change without emphatic leadership. Diverse employees can bring out their best in a stimulating environment. The organizational culture should respect and uphold each employee’s culture and encourage positive interactions. There should be one culture that pays attention to a diversified workforce's needs ( Booysen & Gill, 2020).
Multiple Leadership and Management Strategies
Top-down or bottom-up systems or other systems may fail to meet the extended needs of the workforce. For instance, rather than promoting the commitment necessary to promote an enabling environment, top-down approaches may trigger compliance. Also, bottom or middle strategies alone are limited. Therefore, an organization should adopt all strategies to enhance employee experience, which invites positive results .
Identifying New Pools of Talent
Diversity management is sometimes faced with retention problems. Due to various ethical or moral dilemmas, the rate at which the employees leave the organization can be alarming to the management. In such a case, the organization is forced to recruit other talents. Most companies tend to use traditional new-employee sources such as graduate schools to employ workers. However, organizations are encouraged to adopt recruitment strategies beyond conventional sources, which explore a wider pool of talents from regions or countries, minority groups, or veterans.
Related Studies
While some relevant studies tip organizations to adopt diversity management, others discourage the approach. According to the cognitive diversity hypothesis, proponents both supports and refutes performance enhancement through cross-cultural interactions. However, many proponents suggest that physical diversity characteristics such as age and race lead to improved performance since the task force brings unique cognitive abilities ( Bright et al., 2019). Studies based on similarity-attraction theory suggest a negative correlation between diversity management and organizational results. Employees are likely to become less attached, develop absenteeism, or quit if provided the culture is not stimulating. A diversified workforce is prone to conflicts as members from various regions are characterized by unique beliefs, values, and practices. Social cognitive and social identity theories also suggest adverse outcomes. Employees are likely to fall into various groups based on age, race, or gender where they fit. In the end, conflicts are the potential to emerge.
Anticipated and Discovered Themes
Diverse management impacts the organization positively or negatively. Some of the discovered themes about the approach include a multicultural task environment, communication problems, and racial discrimination ( Tamunomiebi & John-Eke, 2020). The process creates a sense of belonging to employees from different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, employees from diverse cultural backgrounds may encounter language problems. Besides, Diversity in race, age, sex, and other attributes is the basis of bias and stereotypes ( Blancero et al., 2018). Some employees may develop a notion of being superior to others. Anticipated themes include gender equality management and the high cost of diversity management. Diversity management is likely to face gender representation dilemmas among stipulated positions. Women are still underrepresented across many cultural backgrounds. Besides, with the increased cost of living across nations, diversity management may experience financial problems, affecting performance.
Summary
This information lays a foundation for the study by calling on for further research. Diversity management across many nations is one of the contemporary approaches adopted by the human resource department to improve organizational results. However, it seems organizations face setbacks following the inability of the approach to meet the needs of a diversified task force. According to social cognitive and social identity theories, this management style creates conflicts among the task force, affecting performance. In addition, employees from various social and cultural backgrounds are guided by different beliefs, values, and practices. These differences evoke language barriers, gender inequality in job positions, and racial discrimination ( Ramos et al., 2016).
The section studies the discovered and themes associated with diversity management from different angles and offers remedies. Communication problems, racial discrimination, and a multicultural task environment are critical issues that should be either minimized or promoted to realize organizational goals. Since the paper has just looked at these issues hypothetically, there is a need to verify the statements by conducting an empirical study. Besides, the composition having anticipated gender equality issues and the high cost of operation in a diverse cultural environment calls for further research. Also, the section did propose developing a sense of belonging, adopting multiple leadership and management approaches, and identifying a pool of talents as best practices in promoting positive, diverse culture among employees. As much as diversity management is ridiculed, it can generate many benefits if well established ( Edgley et al., 2016). The question is, how can we found such a working culture?
References
Blancero, D. M., Mouriño-Ruiz, E., & Padilla, A. M. (2018). Latino Millennials—The new diverse workforce: Challenges and opportunities. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences , 40 (1), 3-21.
Booysen, L. A., & Gill, P. (2020). Creating a Culture of Inclusion Through Diversity and Equity. In Management and Leadership Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives (pp. 135-144). Springer, Cham.
Bright, D. S., Cortes, A. H., Hartmann, E., Parboteeah, K. P., Pierce, J. L., Reece, M., ... & O’Rourke, J. S. (2019). Principles of Management . OpenStax.
Edgley, C., Sharma, N., & Anderson-Gough, F. (2016). Diversity and professionalism in the Big Four firms: Expectation, celebration and weapon in the battle for talent. Critical Perspectives on Accounting , 35 , 13-34.
Jain, T., & Pareek, C. (2019). Managing Cross-Cultural Diversity: issues anD Challenges. Global Management Review , 13 (2), 23-32.
Ramos, M. R., Hewstone, M., Barreto, M., & Branscombe, N. R. (2016). The opportunities and challenges of Diversity: Explaining its impact on individuals and groups. European Journal of Social Psychology , 46 (7), 793-806.
Sharma, U. (2016). Managing Diversity and cultural differences at the workplace. IPE Journal of Management , 6 (2), 63.
Tamunomiebi, M. D., & John-Eke, E. C. (2020). Workplace Diversity: Emerging Issues in Contemporary. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences , 10 (2).
