Diversity Management

1) Briefly account for the theoretical notion of diversity management

When people think of diversity, they usually think of ethnicity, race and gender; however the term is covered by more aspects. Dimensions of diversity include religion, sexual orientation, age, social class background, mental and physical capability, personality attributes political attributes and many other factors .

Due to globalization and immigration, changes in economy and population, many organizations have been introduced to diversity and therefore also adopted diversity management.

Diversity management is a managerial process which allows equal opportunities for everyone. This concept embodies the belief that people should be valued for their cultural, linguistic and intercultural differences. Instead of the homogeneous “white male” groups which used to dominate the workplaces around the globe, the idea with diversity management is to enable diversity in these places and create more heterogeneous groups .

2) Discuss issues related to its implementation

• What are the potential advantages to the company?

The increasing, visible cultural diversity that we see today, which leads to diversity in workplaces, and the increasing globalization of multinational corporations and global marketing of national corporations is ensuring that diversity management is made visible.

The whole idea with diversity management is to embrace difference in organisations. This often leads to a work environment that allows everyone to reach their full potential, as everyone is free to enhance their creativity and innovation. This of course very often leads to boosted employee commitment and moral.

As mentioned before, in the recent years we have experienced an increasing globalization of multicultural corporations, which means that hundreds of different corporations around the world are communicating with each other, and to do this successfully and effectively can be quite challenging for many managers even when working domestically with a culturally homogeneous workforce. When colleagues speak another language and come from a different cultural background, the communication process becomes more difficult . Here diversity management plays a big role as it often improves the knowledge of how to operate in different cultures. It also improves an organisation’s understanding of the needs of new customers and clients, as a group of heterophilous individuals is more creative and effective because of their differences .

Diversity at work also often leads to enhancement of an organisation’s reputation and image with external stakeholders, as well as suppliers, new customers and the community. It also leads to a development of productive partnerships as well as relationships with new suppliers and sources.

• What traps should be avoided?

As much as diversity management is very important and effective it can also be quite harmful for an organisation if it is not used right. Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It involves recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination, and promoting inclusiveness. As much as diversity management can be positive for an organisation it can also quite often create a negative attitude and behaviour among employees. These can become barriers to organizational diversity because they can harm working relationships and damage morale and work productivity. Negative attitudes and behaviours in the workplace include prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, which should never be used by management for hiring, retention, and termination practices, as then can lead to lawsuits .

Many teachings about multiculturalism can often be formulas about other lifestyles, religions, holidays, customs, worldviews and etc . To make sense of the information that we receive, we necessarily categorise and generalize, which sometimes leaves us to rely on stereotypes. Stereotypes are widely held beliefs about some group. These might be positive or negative, but in either case, they can be quite damaging, as they can create unrealistic expectations to individuals .

Many organisations misuse diversity management and its concept as a public relation move. They overexpose their minority employees and their diversity politics to the world, while the reality in the organisation is quite different. Discrimination and harassment is very often still visible, despite the proliferation of diversity training programs .

Diversity training can sometimes also lead to organisational conflict. This is due to inexperienced, unskilled diversity trainers,