Introduction
Nike Inc. is a global company that was incorporated in 1967 under Oregon State Laws. The company is headquartered at Beaverton, Oregon in the U.S. and operates in other segments, affiliates, predecessors, and subsidiaries in nearly 200 countries. These countries include Greater China, Western Europe, Japan, Central, and Eastern Europe, and Emerging Markets (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). The company's principal business is the development, selling, design, and worldwide marketing of a range of products including athletic footwear, accessories, apparel, services, and equipment. It is the largest seller of apparel and athletic footwear globally as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (2017) states. It focuses on the offerings of NIKE Brand in nine groupings: NIKE Football, Basketball, Running, the Jordan Brand, Sportswear, Women's Training, Men's Training, Action Sports and Golf. Men's Training includes the company's American football and baseball product offerings (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). The company also designs products for children, and products for athletic uses like lacrosse, wrestling, volleyball, cricket, walking, tennis, and outdoor activities.
Its sports apparel covers the above-mentioned groupings, which feature the similar trademark and are sold largely through the same distribution channels and marketing as athletic footwear. Besides, the company also sells a line of accessories and equipment under the name of NIKE Brand including sports balls, bags, digital devices, socks, eyewear, gloves, timepieces, bats, protective equipment and other tools designed for sports activities. These products are sold through an internet website, retail stores owned by NIKE, mobile applications, and through a mix of licenses and independent distributors internationally (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). Besides the products they offer, Nike Inc. has come into license agreements which allow unaffiliated members to manufacture and sell, using the trademark owned by NIKE, particular apparel, applications, and digital devices and other equipment meant for sporting activities. In terms of workers, the company had an estimate of 74,400 employees worldwide as of 31 May 2017, including part-time and retail employees. Management contemplates their relationship with that of employees to be outstanding (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). No group of employees in the company is represented by a union, except for the employees operating in the geography of Emerging Markets, in which the law requires a trade union to represent employees.
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Theories of Diversity Management
Yang and Konrad (2011) define diversity management as a strategic process of managing a diverse workforce. It includes the fight against prejudice, stereotypes and all discrimination forms due to assumptions and perceptions of individuals, in a manner which maximizes the benefits while minimizes barriers of different attitude, opinion, and behaviors of people within a company (Yang & Konrad, 2011). Theoretically, two broad approaches to diversity management include the resource-based theory of diversity management and institutional theory of diversity management.
An Institutional Theory of Diversity Management
According to Yang and Konrad (2011), institutional theory stresses the normative contexts under which organizations operate. In this context, the understanding of organizational actions and structures cannot be separated from their social environment understanding. Institutions are one of social environment critical component which influences organization's structuring and is defined as the cognitive, regulative and normative activities and structures which offer significance and stability for social behavior as Yang and Konrad (2011) explain. The normative institutions entail professional and social norms; regulative institutions include rules, laws, and regulations; and cognitive institutions entail ethics and cultures. These institutions put three types of pressures on organizations to make them conform to the expectations of institutions. In this case, normative pressures come from professionalization; coercive pressures derive from inter-organization interdependence and societal expectations, and mimetic pressures stem from environment uncertainty. Thus, as organizations operating in similar fields are subject to the same mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures, they incline to develop the same administrative structure sets. For this reason, pressures from these institutions result in homogeneity in organizations.
By organizations adapting to structures which conform to the requirements of these institutions, they demonstrate their social norm conformity and as such, garner their operations legitimacy. Legitimacy in this context refers to whether the actions of an organization are approved and accepted by external and internal stakeholders. This legitimacy is a commodity that is valuable. Additionally, it indicates the propriety of an organization in its integrity and actions in its dealings, a factor which assists organizations to gather material resources from a wide actors variety (Yang & Konrad, 2011). In summary, since laws need organizations to become diverse (by conforming to the three institutional pressures), they have to prove to both individuals inside and out of the organization that they are obeying these norms and laws.
The Resource-based Theory of Diversity Management
The major focus in the resource-based theory of diversity management is in the way implementation of diversity impacts the resources of an organization. The resources that organizations possess are categorized into four. They include financial capital, physical capital, corporate capital, and human capital resources (Ng & Burke, 2005). The resources can either inhibit or assist the organizational operations. Organizations can use these resources in ways that would boost the business. Usually, organizations which are more diverse are seen to be having a better outlook and to possess more advantages compared to homogenous organizations. Racial diversity, for instance, is seen to increase financial performance when innovation strategy is applied. According to research done by Ng & Burke (2005), organizations with more diversity management have lower turnover levels. Further, the researchers observed that diversity management practices which are positively used with innovation strategy result in higher and improved performance in the market. Firms with diversity management practices have many advantages over firms which do not apply these policies.
Diversity Management in the Context of Nike Company
Nike is one of the few companies that have revealed their statistics on diversity management practices. In a detailed business report which focuses on staffing and sustainability, Nike indicated that for the first time in 2014/2015, the percentage of employees who are nonwhite in the U.S. went up above 50%. In the year 2015, 15,326 of Nike employees identified as white (The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). This was a representation of 48% of the total 31,977 employees. In terms of racial representation, African American employees make up about 21% of the total Nike employees in the U.S., Hispanic/Latino employees are 18%. The Asians were 7% of the U.S. employees while the rest were reported to be 2% (The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). Across the different countries across the globe where Nike does business, the company encourages a culture of inclusivity and work with diverse teams which respect the communities in which they work and live.
Since the fiscal year 2012/2013 when Nike first shared their diversity staffing statistics, diversity has increasingly become an important topic. Most of the company headlines have since then focused on the tech sector, which mostly dismisses unofficial reports indicating that minority groups and women are underrepresented in staffing. Nike has also focused on having black Americans in the executive positions. In a report that was released by Nike CEO, the company acknowledges that diversity in their company has fostered creativity and has accelerated innovation in the company. The CEO also added that the different perspectives have fueled ideas for the company to have a diverse workforce.
The company has made great strides in recruiting, promoting and retaining diverse talent worldwide. The company has also shown its commitment to continue employing more women and minority groups in the company. In the U.S. biggest corporations, many companies have lesser inclusion at the top management and board seats. At Nike, there are still challenges with regards to diversity at the top positions. For example, women hold only 3 out of the 14 board seats of the company (The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). At the top seats, the whites are still dominating the top management positions. From the time that the company shared the diversity in their staffing, it has added more than 800 women managers. The company also has increased the ethnic and racial diversity by 5% since then (The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2017). With the more ethnic and gender representation in the company, Nike has proved its commitment to embracing diversity.
The company has had its culture evolve from white-dominated to one which focuses on respect, inclusion, equality, and empowerment. Equal employment opportunity protects all the citizens regardless of their ethnic or racial background from any kind of job-related discrimination. When diversity is managed properly, there is no doubt that it becomes a blessing to the company. Nike has put in place human resource policies which do not give any benefit to any particular group. The company has also put in place means of controlling conflict amongst employees related to diversity in the company (Yang& Konrad, 2011). The company motivates several minority groups to improve their performance and look at themselves more positively. Diversity has enhanced the recruitment of dynamic employees from different cultural backgrounds. It has also enhanced innovation and creativity which shapes the brand. Diversity has also grown the competitive advantage of the company. Also, diversity has promoted the belief and stature in the brand within the dynamic consumer base.
Conclusion
With the company's business in design, selling, development and global marketing in various products including accessories, footwear, apparel, services and equipment, Nike Inc. has thrived in embracing diversity management practices. The company highly regards innovation and for that reason encourages the development of diverse talents across the world. The company has put in place policy framework to ensure a balanced diverse organization which pays attention to the needs of its employees equally. The company has enhanced recruitment of employees from different cultural backgrounds. Diversity has enabled the company to enhance creativity and innovation which has played a greater role in shaping the brand. Also, diversity has helped in promoting the stature and belief in the company within the company's diverse customer base.
References
Ng, E. S., & Burke, R. J. (2005). Person–organization fit and the war for talent: does diversity management make a difference?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 16 (7), 1195-1210.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (2017). Nike, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from https://s1.q4cdn.com/806093406/files/doc_financials/2017/Q4/NIKE-Inc.-FY17-10K-Filing.pdf
Yang, Y., & Konrad, A. M. (2011). Understanding diversity management practices: Implications of institutional theory and resource-based theory. Group & Organization Management, 36(1), 6-38.
