Inclusion of Minority Groups in the Workplace

Problem Statement 

Modern organizational managers must deal with emerging social issues in their places of work to increase the overall employee productivity within the organizations that they manage. One of the most significant social issues is the inclusion of minority and traditionally marginalized groups to increase diversity in the workplace. Thus, the inclusion of women, people of color, and members of the LGBT community has emerged as an important social issue that can improve the organization’s reputation and productivity. Some scholars have argued that it is essential to build diverse and inclusive workplaces as it promotes employee engagement, which is a strategic business imperative (Bhatnagar, 2012; Dobni, 2010). However, research has shown that most organizations face the challenge of creating all-inclusive and diverse workplace environments, although inclusion has been an ever-present ideology within the organizational leadership literature (Singh, 2018). While inclusion is without a doubt possible to implement, most organizations have been addressing the issue of diversity while neglecting employee inclusion. According to Hunt, Prince, Dixon-Fyle, and Yee (2018), t he team-centric model comprised of employees from diverse groups cannot perform in organizations that do not foster a strong culture of workplace inclusion. Therefore, this research study argues that workplace diversity is important in modern organizations but it does not exist without the inclusion of various marginalized groups such as women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBT. Nevertheless, this study proposes a solution to the problem of exclusion of minority groups in workplaces. As such, the following research thesis will guide this research:

Thesis : The problem of exclusion of minority groups such as women, people of color, and members of LGBT can be solved through improved communication, inclusive hiring process, and the implementation of diversity and inclusion programs in organizations. 

Research question : Can improved communication, inclusive hiring process, and the implementation of diversity and inclusion programs solve the problem of exclusion of minority groups such as women, people of color, and LGBT? 

Literature Review

The importance attached to inclusion is seen in the increased interest in the promotion of workplace diversity in organizations in recent times. Organizational leaders have realized that the diversity of employees not only improves the reputation of an organization from a corporate point of view but it is also associated with improved performance. Several studies conducted in recent times agree that fostering a culture of employee engagement can greatly enhance innovation. According to Dobni (2010), there is a distinct association between innovation and strategy and that the innovation culture of organizations can be influenced by the leaders of those organizations only if they focus on the employee. Also, Bhatnagar (2012) studied the relationships between psychological empowerment, work engagement, innovation, and turnover intention and discovered that cultivating a genuinely engaging workplace environment can greatly enhance innovation in any organization. As Bailey, Madden, Alfes, and Fletcher (2017) state, having employees that are highly engaged with each other is important in creating an innovative work behavior within an organization. Therefore, the key point in driving innovative culture in organizations is increasing employee engagement. 

People from different groups have diverse talents that, when harnessed, can greatly enhance organizational performance. Employees feel and become more comfortable being themselves when an organization creates an environment whereby diversity is commonplace ( Bailey et al., 2017) . In turn, happy employees are motivated to work at their optimum level, which increases their overall productivity. On the other hand, natural cognitive diversity is stifled since employees feel the pressure to conform to the dominant organizational culture if organizations foster a strong homogeneous workplace culture ( Bhatnagar, 2012) . If employees from minority groups such as LGBT or people of color do not feel as if they are part of the group that they are working together, they will develop a fear for rejection, which will adversely affect their performances at their places of work.

The process of implementation of employee diversity in organizations requires a significant commitment from organizational leaders. While a significant amount of studies on workplace diversity have been published, there is no single blueprint from which organizational leaders can foster inclusivity in their organizations because different organizations have unique sets of needs and goals that must be aligned with diversity practices to successfully promote the inclusion of employees from minority groups ( Bailey et al., 2017; Singh, 2018) . Therefore, organizational leaders should not feel pressured to copy inclusion initiatives implemented by other organizations into their organizations but they must make special consideration into the specific culture that they have in their organizations. For example, organizational leaders need not create inclusion objectives around the improvement of the number of employees from minority groups such as people of color if they already have a racially diverse workforce in their organizations. 

Finding the right people to push the inclusion agenda within an organization is one of the common problems experienced by organizational leaders in most organizations. While it can be easy to design the most detail-oriented diversity program, it will serve no important purpose if there is no one to execute it. Therefore, organizational leaders must have the right teams, resources, and support to implement any diversity or inclusion program designs. 

Argument Development

While diversity has to do with the presence of members from different groups in the workplace, inclusion has to do with the availability of a healthy work environment that supports diversity. The environment must be defined by mutual respect to foster improved engagement. Based on the above literature review, it is evident that increased collaboration and team spirit is one of the main benefits of the inclusion of different groups in the workplace. To boost inclusion and collaboration, organizational leaders must improve internal communication to motivate employees to speak up, share, and give feedback (Tayar, 2017). Organizational leaders must act as catalysts of change by encouraging their staff to work together, speak their minds, and use their initiatives. Through well-supported internal communication strategies, employees, irrespective of their level of diversity, will be free to make valuable contributions that support the organization’s performance while at the same time respecting other people’s opinions. Communication between the leader and the staff does not have to be face-to-face at all times. Rather, an organizational leader can use social media, email, or any other internal communication channels to communicate what is happening within the organization.

Another way of fostering inclusion is through an inclusive hiring and recruitment process. Organizational leaders must encourage minority groups such as women, people of color, and LGBT people to apply for available openings. If necessary, some positions should be reserved for minority groups to ensure a diverse and inclusive workforce. The hiring process should not discriminate based on one's race, gender, or sexual orientation. Also, the interview process should gauge the interviewee's perception of diversity and what they can do to promote diversity within the organization. Only people who are supportive of the organization's inclusion policy should be hired.

Diversity and inclusion programs should meet the specific objective of improving the inclusion of minority groups in the organization. The goal of the inclusion programs should focus on making the workplace environment a good place for different groups of people to work collaboratively. Inclusion programs can involve training on the benefits of inclusion of different groups and the need to collaborate and engage with each other with mutual respect (Tayar, 2017). Other programs can include holding regular social events for staff members.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between diversity and inclusion of different groups of people within an organization, employee engagement, and innovative culture. By fostering a culture of inclusion of different groups of people, including the minority groups such as women, people of color, and members of the LGBT family, organizational leaders would be able to increase employee engagement, which is a necessary ingredient for innovativeness within an organization. While the benefits of inclusion are immense, this study has also discovered that the problem of inclusion occurs as a result of a lack of goodwill to push for inclusion goals within an organization. Few organizational leaders have put in place measures aimed at improving workplace engagement, which essential for inclusion. For instance, most organizations do not have inclusion programs, lack inclusion policies in their recruitment process, and communication have not been used effectively to minimize any threats to inclusion.

Additionally, investing in diversity programs has been prioritized by many companies, but it still falls short of achieving inclusivity of the minority groups that include LGBT, women and people of color. These groups indicated that they have not personally benefited from the diversity programs. According to García Johnson and Otto (2019), there is a clear disconnect between diversity programs offers and the level these minority groups feel included and benefit from the programs. It is time for corporate leaders to step up their efforts towards diversity programs to ensure they are effective, especially across gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. 

It is apparent that the minority groups desire visible role models, with an example of women that feel they want more parental leave and childcare support. Zurbrügg and Miner (2016) explain that women have strong indicators towards onsite childcare and backup care. Similarly, a bias-free work-place represent an important measure to ensure diversity at the workplace, with majority desiring a fairer recruiting and career advancement decisions. Majority indicated they would prefer a working environment that supports their uniqueness, without them having to feel out of place. For instance, LBGTQ workers prefer workplace free of bias, supported through structural changes, hence real indications and measures such as gender-neutral restrooms and non-binary gender designations. The findings also showed a back-to-basics framework that could help in enhancing diversity programs. For instance, the study identifies important fundamental prerequisites that could help organizations to change. An example include implementing anti-discrimination policies, engaging in bias awareness training, and removing bias from any evaluation and promotional decisions. 

Discussion

The solutions proposed in this study seek to create a healthy working environment for employees from minority groups to work collaboratively with others without being discriminated against. Organizational leaders who experience problems managing diversity and inclusion of minority groups in their organizations would find it useful to develop effective communication strategies to promote inclusivity. For example, organizational leaders can communicate through their organizations' social media, emails, or even hold regular face-to-face meetings to discuss the need to have a diverse workforce and the importance of supporting the marginalized groups. Besides taking advantage of effective communication to solve diversity issues facing employees in their organizations, organizational leaders can also change their hiring procedures to ensure that they attract more applicants from marginalized groups and even develop effective inclusion programs to accommodate employees from marginalized groups. While this study proposes three solutions, the success of any attempt to promote include depends on the support and resources that organizational leaders will receive in their push for inclusivity. Having a valuable resource such as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion in an organization would be great as the person would be responsible for observing the workplace environment and implementing necessary changes to promote inclusion. Given what this research has discovered, future studies should focus on the impacts of the leadership styles of organizational leaders on the promotion of inclusion. For instance, it will be interesting to know if a transformational or transactional leader is ideal for pushing for inclusion in organizations.

Conclusion

This research wanted to explore different ways in which the inclusion of minority groups such as women, people of color, and members of the LGBT community improve organizational performance. The findings indicate that inclusion improves employee performance by enhancing collaboration, increasing engagement, collaboration, and improving innovativeness. Thus, there is a need to foster an all-inclusive workplace environment that accommodates diverse perspectives to become successful. The role of an organizational leader is to promote collaboration between employees to create efficient and productive teams. By fostering the inclusion of different employee groups, organizational leaders make their workforce emotionally engaged thereby strengthening team spirit within their organizations. As a result, every employee will understand that they are a key link in the chain and that their expertise, opinions, experience, and skills are highly respected and valued. Employee engagement is a lever that influences different levels of innovation in organizations. However, the study found out that most organizations are concerned with promoting diversity and not specifically inclusion. For instance, most organizations do not have inclusion policies and programs for LGBT communities, which makes them isolated in the workplace for fear of rejection. Concisely, organizations should strive to ensure all employees feel as part of the team by enhancing both diversity and inclusion. 

References

Bailey, C., Madden, A., Alfes, K., & Fletcher, L. (2017). The meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: A narrative synthesis.  International Journal of Management Reviews ,  19 (1), 31-53. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077

Bhatnagar, J. (2012). Management of innovation: Role of psychological empowerment, work engagement and turnover intention in the Indian context.  The International Journal of Human Resource Management ,  23 (5), 928-951. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.651313

Dobni, C. B. (2010). Achieving synergy between strategy and innovation: The key to value creation.  International Journal of Business Science & Applied Management (IJBSAM) ,  5 (1), 48-58. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1142/s1363919610002660

García Johnson, C. P., & Otto, K. (2019). Better together: A model for women and LGBTQ equality in the workplace. Frontiers in Psychology , 10, 272.

Hunt, V., Prince, S., Dixon-Fyle, S., & Yee, L. (2018). Delivering through diversity.  McKinsey & Company Report. Retrieved April ,  3 , 2018. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.287131

Singh, P. (2018). LGBT Diversity and Inclusion at Workplace–An Analysis of Changing Demographics.  Resource ,  9 (2), 22-25. Retrieved from doi.org/10.34218/ijmhrm.9.2.2018.004

Tayar, M. (2017). Ranking LGBT inclusion: Diversity ranking systems as institutional archetypes.  Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration ,  34 (2), 198-210. doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1433

Zurbrügg, L., & Miner, K. N. (2016). Gender, sexual orientation, and workplace incivility: Who is most targeted and who is most harmed? Frontiers in Psychology , 7, 565.