Goal: The goal of this assignment is to advance your understanding of management theories, tools and practices by investigating a specific management issue in depth. You will apply contemporary theory on organisation, outline the various dimensions of organisational and employee behaviour, consider multiple theoretical perspectives, consider workplace diversity and reflect on your own and future management practice. Product: Essay. Format: Essay (Essay options will be provided on Blackboard). Criteria Please see below. Page 4 Course Outline: MGT701 Managing Organisations 1. Application of appropriate conceptual frameworks/models/ theories supported by scholarly references. 150 2. Provide well justified critique (pros and cons) of the issues 70 3. Convincing recommendations and conclusions drawn 50 4. Quality of presentation including clarity of expression, professionalism of layout and formatting, grammar and spelling. 30
MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 1 Task 1 Managing Diversity in an Organization Course Name- Managing Organisation Course ID- MGT701 Student’s Name- Mitul Kumbhnai Student ID- 1111954 MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 2 Managing Diversity in an Organization Introduction Nowadays, diversity in the organisation is increasing rapidly due to the globalization, migration of people and technological advancement. Due to the globalization of the world, people are seeking for good opportunity and they migrant from home country to another country and, it resulted diversity in organisation. Diversity in organisation brings not only race or ethnicity but, also include religious, political belief, gender, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation and geographical location. Nowadays, Gender diversity is becoming essential part in the organisation. Gender diversity refers an equitable ratio of man and woman. If organisation don’t manage diversity properly, they will leave behind and, may cause to capital investment and stock holders. Therefore, diversity need to be managed in organisation. management of gender diversity may benefit to organisation reputation, increasing in performance and, most importantly, organisation will get widen talent pool. Diversity in organisation will be managed by Provide training on gender equality to management personnel. Educate managers in both the obvious and the subtle discrimination that takes place in business. Teach them how to identify discrimination when it takes place among their staff, how to deal with the situation and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Diversity Diversity is defined by different authors through different means which includes the diversity in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, and disability (Wheeler, 1994). The diversity includes the different aspects in the terms of values, physical appearance, sexual orientation, beliefs, education, personality characteristics, language, marital status, lifestyle, and background characteristics such as geographic origin, tenure with the organizations, and economic status (Triandis, 1994). Today, the organizations are making an effort to have a diversified workforce across its organization which has been a boon to the company. The government and the other agencies have also become strict by enforcing equal employment opportunity to the company. The government makes sure that the companies are including diversified workforce. Therefore, it has become necessary to understand how organizations perceive and define the concept of diversity when they conduct diversity training programs. Gender Diversity Gender diversity can be said as the diversity of the gender i.e. the Men and Women. There are many companies which does not include and give opportunities to the female candidates as compared to the male candidates. They emphasize on preferring a male MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 3 candidate over many jobs. It is important for an organization to have a gender diversified organization as it helps in providing boon to the company in terms of exposure, diversified knowledge and different thinking style. Approaches for gender diversity In the field of psychology, there authors have presented three typical approaches to gender differences, and all three approaches coexist today. The cross-cultural variations of gender diversity are includes the ideal roles that the women can play in an organization including the traditional approach, the equity approach, and the complementary approach (Tavris, 1991). These three approaches describe the evolution of gender diversity in organizations, especially the reasons for stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination based on gender differences. First, the traditional approach believes that gender differences are fundamental, and this view operates on the notion that women are opposite and deficient in comparison to men. Second, the equity approach is based on the assumption that there is a similarity in the sexes which is adopted by different countries (Adler & Izraeli, 1994). Women were said to be identical as men professionally, they are considered to be equal to men in contributing to the organization and the organizational growth. (Vinkenburg, Jansen, & Koopman, 2000). The women can act like men, think like men, and dress like men in the work culture. For instance, women should work as hard as men, focus less on their families, and female employees may be paid equal to male employees if their professional skills are as good as men's. Third, the complementary approach acknowledges the uniqueness of women and it states that both the genders contribute to the growth and the performance of the organization in their own way. Littleton (1987) argued for a model of equality as acceptance, which referred to acceptance of existing differences rather than equality as assimilation. In other words, it was not suggested that gender differences in personality traits, skills, and cognitions do not exist, but rather this approach has illuminated the profound differences that divide men and women in their gender roles. Additionally, people appreciate and accept gender differences regarding their specific life experiences and points of view. Importance of Gender diversity Today, the organizations are trying to manage the diversity within the organization as they consider diversity as one of the tools which can help the company to boost its innovation and excellence. The organizations are moving forward and giving higher position to women in order to balance the roles. Some organizations are also including women in board of directors to spur different views. Though the gender diversity still lacks in the organizations, and the organizations still prefer the male candidate over the female candidate. It has been seen that the diversified team can help the company to develop. The MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 4 gender diverse teams may accelerate the innovation in terms of the organizations as well as marketing. The main reason is the way that the men and women think. They both have different thinking style and management style which can add the spark to the organization and help the organization to improve on its performance. From the research and the organizational performances, it can be seen that the gender diversity within the organizations are helping in generating the positive synergy between the organizations and is helping the organization to innovate and to perform better. With the more diverse workforce, the companies are trying to excel and think from different perspective to capture more and more market. Training program Even despite of the rapid growth of the different training programs, the organization and the trainers think that they lack on the effective diversity training programs. It is important for the organization to design the training program in such a way that it meets its requirements and the agenda of the company. Effective approach needs to be considered when designing the program and the diversity training. For the diversity training program, it is very important to consider the socio-cultural factors which can help in designing the gender diversity training programs. It is important to do the need assessment for the gender diversity training of the employees as well as the organization. The training should emphasize on the process by which the employees are educated on how to embrace the difference among the co-workers of the company and how to mitigate these differences and work together to achieve the set roles and meet the organization goal. With the training the employees are likely to have their first exposure for the diversity within the company. The diversity training will help the employees to minimize the disruption because of the diversity and also maintain high employee morale and foster harmony and understanding within the organization. With the gender diversity training program, the employees will be able to look at the other gender with same respect and dignity and will be able to work together to achieve the set goals of the company. As the society has always been a male dominating society, the gender training will help the male employees to leave their set notion that the women are basically meant to take care of the families and home. From the research and the organizational performances it can be seen that the gender diversity within the organizations are helping in generating the positive synergy between the organizations and is helping the organization to innovate and to perform better. With the more diverse workforce, the companies are trying to excel and think from different perspective to capture more and more market. MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 5 References: Littleton, C. A. (1987). Reconstructing sexual equality. California Law Review, 75, 1279- 1337. Vinkenburg, C. L, Jansen, P. G. W., & Koopman, P. L. (2000). Feminine leadership: A review of gender differences in managerial behavior and effectiveness. In M. J. Davidson & R. J. Bruke (Eds.), Women in management: Current research issues (Vol. II, pp. 120- 137). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Adler, N., & Izraeli, D. (1994). Competitive frontiers: Women managers in a global economy. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business. Tavris, C. (1991). The mismeasure of women: Paradoxes and perspectives in the study of gender. In J. D. Goodchilds (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on human diversity in America (pp. 91-136). Washington, DC: APA. Wheeler, M. L. (1994). Diversity training: A research report (Research Report Number 1083- 94-RR). New York, NY: Conference Board. Jackson, S. E., May, K. E., & Whitney, K. (1995). Understanding the dynamics of diversity in decision-making teams. In R. A. Guzzo & E. Salas (Eds.), Team effectiveness and decision making in organizations (pp. 204-261). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Triandis, H. C. (1994). Cultural and social behavior. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Richard, O. C., Kirby, S. L., & Chadwick, K. (2013). The impact of racial and gender diversity in management on financial performance: how participative strategy making features can unleash a diversity advantage. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 24(13), 2571-2582. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.744335 Catalyst (2013a). 2013 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors. Retrieved from MANAGING DIVERSITY IN AN ORGANIZATION 6 http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/2013_catalyst_census_fortune_500_women_ board_d irector.pdf Herdman, A., & McMillan-Capehart, A. (2010). Establishing a diversity program is not enough: Exploring the determinants of diversity climate