Hrm - Equal Opportunities Approaches & Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity in the workplace is more than just an acquired skill, it is "a way of thinking" (1). It involves creating an environment that allows all employees to contribute to organizational goals and experience personal growth. The key is to help employees reach their full potential by creating an environment that will allow them to be motivated and productive and ultimately, be beneficial for the organization.

According to Ozbilgin (2008), diversity is one of the top global issues and requires management attention. There are both benefits and challenges in managing diversity. However, Golnaz and Hoa (2002) stated that most organizations agree that diversity is a reality and while managing the same, it can be either an asset or a hindrance towards goals (Gleason 2004). Diversity helps the organization become proactive and flexible to new aspects and scenarios (Pwc 2011). To manage a successful diverse workforce, organisations need to promote self-awareness, openness, clear-headedness, adaptability, candour and egalitarianism. This can be a challenging task due to complex human behaviour and biases (Parkin 2009).

Diversity in the organization can affect the employees and their behavior in many ways. The effect can be positive and negative in the same time. The positive effect is, it will wider employee knowledge, skills, and attitude which will allow the organization to become more competitive globally. Higher diversity of employees mean higher diversity of knowledge, skills and abilities. Sharing experience inspires innovative thinking (Claudia Quaiser-Pohls, 2013, p. 41). Today in the modern workplace, most organizations will have

Since public and private organization uses managing diversity concept ,this chapter addresses how managing diversity concepts is use several ways such as organizational and management level, group performance, group dynamics, group perspectives, and individual identity.

In the book entitled, Diversity and Public Administration by Harvey L. White and Mitchell F. Rice , White and Rice (2010) stated challenges will form from changes in demographics which are affecting the demands of delivery and visions of products and services. Since 2000, minority population has increased dramatically. In result of minority population increasing, public organizations have a more diverse work environment. In the workplace, diversity can be a benefit. According to the article entitled , “Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace” by David Ingram, Ingram(2015) stated that by have a diverse workplace allows the company to utilize their employees’ cultural difference to strengthen the organizations’ productivity. Another advantage of diverse workplace is that it increase employee’s personal growth. By employees being expose to cultural difference and new ideas, this allows employees to have global perspective on how to conduct business (Ingram,2015). Diversity can also have disadvantages in the workforce. One of the disadvantages is the ability of employees to respect each other cultural differences. Diverse workplace has to endure several challenges and issues.

Diversity is what makes people different, not just culturally but in human differences. Having a multitude of differences in the workforce gives an organization the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can accomplish greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of individuals. Managers understand the concept of diversity, and how important diversity is to the success of a company’s ability to implement programs that continue to develop a harmonious and diverse workplace. The recognition that diversity is a reality in the workforce has generated an enormous amount of activity over the years among leaders in business, government, and civil

As companies are becoming more and more diverse it 's becoming more and more important for companies to understand and manage it. The people of different background, races, religion creates diverse workforce. There is an importance of having diverse workforce to provide better performance. There are perspectives of managing the diverse workforce, which require organization leaders and managers of being responsible of attaining better diverse workforce.

Over the decades, diversity in the workplace has started to become a business necessity. But what does diversity actually mean? In broad terms, diversity encompasses a group of people with different biological characteristics such as age, race, gender, ethnicity disability and so on. However, the true definition of diversity in the workplace is about ensuring that every single person that goes to work everyday have the freedom to bring along their full self to work and it is not just about welcoming but it is about embracing and harnessing the diversity of thought, the diversity of background, the diversity of experience, the diversity in education, and not just the traditional aspects in diversity. Even so, one of the major challenges that

“Diversity management is the management strategy of using best practices with proven results to find and create a diverse and inclusive workplace (www.diversityinc.com)”.

Workforce Diversity defines the visible or invisible differences among employees of an organization and could be divided in to three major components such as Primary, Secondary and Organizational and Community. Factors such as Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity represents Primary while Appearance, Educational Background, Marital Status, Work experience represents Secondary and Job position, Specialization, Nationality, Life stage represents Organizational and Community. In recent years, organizations spend more in diversity management as most of the organizations consist with employees from different backgrounds. Further, diversity in an organization is a significant factor that may affect the performance of an organization positively or negatively. For example, it can create innovation, empowerment, information sharing, and productivity when well managed and can cause discrimination, power play, miscommunication and control when managed poorly.

Diversity is a wider concept than just ethnicity, race and gender. Other unique characteristics such as age, culture, style, education, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation also contribute to diversity. Promoting workforce diversity is difficult for organizations especially the larger ones. If conflicts can be controlled performance and productivity may be increased. There are also many advantages to diversity especially in the workplace. We can all gain if we learn how to accept and

Healthcare organisations using legislations and guidance to protect and support equality, diversity and inclusion in the work environment. When using and following organisation’s guidelines it is easier to deal with situations like discrimination, confidentiality, disciplinary procedures, waiting times policy also grievance policy, quality of care guidelines and equal opportunities guidelines. These guidelines will outline the steps that the healthcare organisation takes to make sure they comply with The Equality Act of 2010, Human Rights Act 1998 and others important

One major problem in the organization is the issue of appreciating diversity within the workplace. Most employees and some management personnel see this as a threat and therefore there cannot be efficient teamwork cohesion in doing projects. This may be due to the fact that they have reinforcing homogeneity perspectives or color-blind perspectives (Prasad, 1997). Leaders should try to make changes to this major issue since it affects operations where diversity is required to achieve strategic goals. The organization should plan to change the mentality of those rejecting diversity, to embrace Fairness perspective, access perspective, integration and learning perspectives which will ensure a unison move to prosperity of the organization (Clements & Jones, 2008). The organization’s vision requires diversity in place since diversity offers:

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

Managing diversity and equality effectively in the workplace is the core responsibility of any organization in the contemporary business world. Shen, Chanda, D’Netto and Monga (2009) conducted a survey whose results revealed the massive diversity within the British society in terms of ethnicity, nationality and religion. As a result, the Equality Act of 2010 was formulated and became law whose provisions focus on legal protection against discrimination based on gender re-assignment, marriage, civil partnership, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, pregnancy and maternity, sex and beliefs (Monks, 2007). Therefore, managing diversity in the workplace is critical towards the achievement of equality and discrimination free working environment. Bhatia (2008) observed that the ability to understand, accept, value, acknowledge and celebrate differences among people with respect to race, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity and mental ability within an organization is crucial in eliminating discrimination. Discrimination refers to the tendency of denying equal treatment to people believed to be members of the same social group (Ozbilgin, 2009). In other words, discrimination in the work place is related to denial of equal treatment in terms of promotion, compensation, career development, training and empowerment. Therefore, managing diversity in the work place is crucial towards the achievement of a discrimination free working environment and the