Discuss about the Company diversity – A case study of Accenture.
Workplace diversity plays a significant role in any organization. Diversity at a workplace throws light on people coming from several races, ethnicities, citizenships and backgrounds that work together under a single roof. Diversity in any workplace ideally aims to improve workplace environment, enhance learning and ensure inclusivity within a business. This report highlights upon the efforts taken by leading consulting organization Accenture. Accenture intensively focuses on ensuring workplace diversity and has always prioritized inclusivity. They have always been fundamental to the culture at Accenture’s offices throughout the globe. The business puts tremendous efforts in attracting a diverse workforce and creating an environment of equality and growth for them.
In order to ensure workplace diversity, equality and inclusivity, a business needs to put efforts in creating a culture of respect and trust (Barak, 2016). Accenture encourages workplace equality and diversity. From the top management to lower management, all the employees do their bit in ensuring workplace diversity. They implement gender parity by setting an example of equal pay and equal opportunities for leadership roles. They consistently try to recruit women from different parts of the world and today they are proud of their 150000 member women team. This makes up for 40% of their global workforce. The CEO Pierre Nanterme targets this level to reach 50% by the year 2020. Leading women have been a part of the company’s board of directors and are offered an equal pay as their male counterparts. By 2020, the brand targets to ensure that 25% of the leadership roles in the business are occupied by women (Accenture, 2018).
Accenture’s gender equality is not limited to men and women but also expands to the LGBT community. They also consistently enhance awareness about the LGBT community and their rights in the world. They specifically put efforts in recruiting people from the LGBT community and strive to give them a work environment where they are treated with respect. The LGBT community have a long history of struggle in various facets of their life. The people at Accenture are sensitive to their plight and create an environment of mutual respect and growth at the business.
Accenture’s business is also sensitive to disable people. The company offices are accessible to people with disabilities. The top management regularly conducts seminars and workshops that are aimed at enhancing awareness about physical disability among people. People are given paid leaves to focus on their mental health. Accenture creates websites which are friendly for people with disabilities. This implies that people with disability too can complete reports or look for information in a hassle free manner.
Communication plays a key role in ensuring equality in the face of diversity (Harvey & Allard, 2015). As an initiative to build a culture of transparency in communication, managers have adopted an open door policy. The policy suggests that the senior members of the business would keep their doors open at all times in order to let employees know that they are available for communication (Docherty, 2015). Such a policy encourages employees to share their views, ideas and opinions.
Such a strong policy of diversity at workplace largely enhances productivity if managed in an effective manner. Accenture takes immense pride in the diversity. Diversity helps in bringing fresh perspectives to everyday scenarios. Workforce diversity is a result of globalization. The advent of the flat world has allowed people from different geographical, cultural and social backgrounds to work together in order to achieve organizational objectives. Workforce diversity impacts employees working conditions and this in turn impacts workplace productivity. Workplace diversity requires effective interpersonal relationships among employees in order to foster productivity. This is why Accenture puts tremendous efforts in ensuring cordial and mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships among employees as well as other stakeholders.
A diverse workforce creates an environment of learning and growth within the business and hence leads to improved productivity (Okoro & Washington, 2012). People coming from different backgrounds vary in their professional experience as well as skills. Therefore when such a diverse workforce collaborates together, a platform for combined growth is created leading to enhanced overall productivity at the workplace. The culture of equality at Accenture enhances a sense of responsibility and ownership among employees that further leads to accomplishment of tasks in an effective manner.
Human resource management plays a key role in deriving productivity from a diverse workforce (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Accenture puts significant efforts in enhancing awareness about and creating a culture of mutual respect in the face of diversity. Several workshops are conducted to raise awareness about different cultures. The information technology of the business also significantly ensures inclusivity and equality among the diverse workshop of the business. This is predominantly because effective use of technology assists in creating equality among differently abled people hence leading to enhanced productivity within the business.
It is tedious to quantify the benefits of a diverse workforce specifically in terms of the innovation that diversity brings. A strong workforce diversity within a business tends to create a healthy competition among employees (Podsiadlowski et. al., 2013). Therefore they look for more innovative strategies and tend to widen their horizons and gain newer outlooks on everyday situations. This fosters innovation and creativity leading to improved growth.
Accenture has recently launched Amplify You which is an exciting piece of leadership in order to bridge the digital divide for people with disabilities (Accenture, 2017). This technology has the potential to bring over 350 million people with disabilities within the workforce within the next ten years. Such efforts are encouraged and taken by Accenture employees. These efforts are evidence of the growth of innovation within the business.
There are two kinds of diversity which are a part of an organization. This includes inherent diversity and acquired diversity. Inherent diversity comes from the place of attributes which are inherent in nature including ethnicity, race or religion (Hopkins & Scott, 2016). On the other hand, acquired diversity comes from attributes that have been acquired by individuals through the choices they make. Accenture is diverse in both aspects. Diversity within workplace leads to innovation by creating an environment where ideas that are “out of box” are heard (Harvard Business Review, 2013). At Accenture, the diversity is not limited to the staff but also extends to the top management of the business thereby giving room to new ideas in a top to bottom manner. During its efforts to create equality in the face of diversity, Accenture makes it safe for employees to propose new ideas and gives its employee a relatively higher level of decision making authority, hence leading to innovation.
A diverse workforce can either create an innovative workplace or can become the root cause of conflicts and lack of communication within any organization. Therefore, the management of this workforce defines its impact. Accenture’s top management strives to create a working culture of mutual respect, trust, growth, learning and open communication. Therefore, the overall innovation within the business shoots, new perspectives are learnt and overall level of creativity within the business is enhanced.
An organization’s culture has a direct impact on employee motivation and performance (Sergeant & Laws-Chapman, 2012). Accenture understands the importance of workplace diversity and hence puts efforts in ensuring the same. The culture at Accenture is largely impacted by the level of diversity within the business. A diverse organization tends to widen people’s horizons and creates a culture that is full of learning and growth. Teams are equipped with people coming from varied backgrounds and professional experiences. Working with diverse teams is aimed at motivating employees and ensuring that they collaborate in an effective manner with a collective aim to deliver value. The diversity within Accenture’s team provides employees with a chance to learn from highly skilled people who have earned expertise in their respective fields thereby enhancing scope of knowledge for all stakeholders.
The organization consistently offers opportunities to the LGBT and physically disabled community to work with Accenture by creating a culture and atmosphere of respect, equality and growth. Such efforts by the organization create a culture that is responsible and sensitive. The business also takes its responsibility towards the planet seriously and this is reflected within the culture of the business. Employees keep the use of paper and plastic to the minimum, energy is conserved at every step and waste and is managed in an efficient manner.
Equality within the business also tends to create a positive working environment by encouraging people to effectively participate in the business. Responsibilities and leadership roles are offered in a just manner and hence employees work hard for their growth. A culture of healthy competition internally within the business is being propagated at Accenture. The workplace diversity also aims at enhancing learning and growth within the business creating a culture that is a rich source of employee development.
Understanding diversity was an enriching experience. Not only was I able to gain a deeper insight about Accenture as a business but I was also able to understand the efforts made by the organization in the direction of creating diversity and offering equal opportunities. The amount of technological development that the organization has done in order to create an equal working environment for the disabled in magnificent. The case study also helped me understand several contributions that I can make in order to promote workplace equality. I had several apprehensions regarding leaving the country for work in the future. However, after understanding the efforts that are put by businesses in order to create equality in the face of diversity have changed my opinion on the matter.
After understanding the work culture and environment at Accenture, I understood the importance of workplace diversity. I was also able to gauge the contribution of workplace diversity in an employee’s learning. Within a diverse organization, human resource management plays a significant role in ensuring equality and a leveled ground for all employees irrespective of their ethnicities, races, backgrounds, physical or mental abilities or their religion. Workplace diversity bring people from varied cultural, economic, geographic and social backgrounds to work and collaborate together in order to achieve organizational goals.
Conclusion
The growth of technology and the advent of globalization have created a flat world with an easy movement of people, information, resources and technology. This has led to the development of highly diverse workforce in all organizations. This report has highlighted upon the importance as well as the advantages of diversity within the workplace with regards to the case study of consulting giant, Accenture which is widely known for its efforts towards introducing and sustaining diversity in the workplace. This diversity at Accenture ranges from varied cultures, ethnicities, races, physical and mental skills, professional backgrounds and geographies or origin.
There are several advantages of having a diverse workforce. Enhanced employee learning and exposure are the most important benefits of varied people working together (Wambui et. al., 2013). Diversity in the workplace leads to improved innovation, productivity and culture. Accenture consistently strives to encourage and retain a diverse workforce through tremendous efforts in creating a culture of equality in the face of diversity. Management of human resources at Accenture is conducted in an effective manner with implementation of strong policies and practices that lead to employee growth, equality among employees and diversity within workforce. These efforts by the firm have led to the creation of a team which is evidence of increased productivity, class apart innovation and mutual growth and respect.
References
Accenture, (2017). ‘Amplify you’, Available at https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-disruptive-technology-trends-2017, Retrieved on 16 July, 2018.
Accenture, (2018). ‘The path to gender equality’, Available at https://www.accenture.com/au-en/company-diversity, Retrieved on 16 July, 2018.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. United Kingdom.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications. United States.
Docherty, T. (2015). Open-door policy?. Index on Censorship, 44(2), 34-39.
Harvard Business Review, (2013). ‘How diversity can drive innovation’, Available at https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation, Retrieved on 16 July, 2018.
Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2015). Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson. United States.
Hopkins, W. E., & Scott, S. G. (2016). Values-based leadership effectiveness in culturally diverse workplaces. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 23(2), 363-385.
Okoro, E. A., & Washington, M. C. (2012). Workforce diversity and organizational communication: Analysis of human capital performance and productivity. Journal of Diversity Management (Online), 7(1), 57.
Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C., & Van Der Zee, K. (2013). Managing a culturally diverse workforce: Diversity perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), 159-175.
Sergeant, J., & Laws-Chapman, C. (2012). Creating a positive workplace culture. Nursing Management (through 2013), 18(9), 14.
Wambui, T. W., Wangombe, J. G., Muthura, M. W., Kamau, A. W., & Jackson, S. M. (2013). Managing Workplace Diversity: A Kenyan Pespective. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(16).
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