Managing Workforce Diversity In The Business Environment

The issue of managing workforce diversity

The primary purpose of the paper is to evaluate information regarding one of the critical issues that occurs in the business environment by the business role and management interest. Furthermore, managing workforce diversity is chosen as the management issue and for diminishing the issue proper solution are also provided concerning the various theories. Moreover, the role of manager relating to values, ethics, and integrity in concerning the solutions of this issue will also be offered in this context.

The most common problem faced by the business environment by their business role, or management interest is managing the workforce diversity in an organization. It is seen that most of the organization constitutes a variety of people belonging to the different country having different culture as well as religion. Hence, diverse people in the working place possess different perspective regarding to their work. Thus the management faces difficulty in handling these diverse workforces in their working atmosphere and therefore it is considered as one of the major issues that occurs in the business environment. In other words, diversity does not define the perspective of an employee, but it also describes its identity in the workplace. The difference in the workplace is mainly characterized by race, ethnic groups, religion, gender, sexual orientation, military service, citizenship status, and physical and mental condition as well as other differences between people (Byrd & Scott, 2018).

The problem faced by the management is only when discrimination occurs between the employees of the native country with that of the worker belonging to different countries. It is seen that most of the managers in an organization mainly refer to the employees of their native country and provide them huge benefits in the workplace (Saxena, 2014). Hence this causes a huge issue in the management because of this discrimination content and therefore most of the workers belonging to different culture denies to work properly in the business environment. It is found that discrimination causes excellent harm not only to the workforce environment but also sometimes the business growth affected by this factor and thus it is considered to be a wrong approach in some cases. Therefore, in this situation managing these diverse group of the workforce is quite difficult for the management and thereby it is a big issue for the management team in their business environment. It is essential for the organization to have a diverse group in the workforce but the issue that occurs due to diverse workforce cause a negative impact on both the business procedure as well as the employees working in that organization (Valantine, 2017).

The impact of managing workforce diversity on the organization

The issue occurs due to ethnicity and race mainly because of the perspectives as well as approaches or customs to communication in the workplace. Employees are mainly divided into sections of the minor and major class, and these hamper the employee relations among them. Hence due to these differences, it creates challenges for the management to control the minds of every individual in the workplace.  In other words, the gender problem is the most critical issue because it mainly discriminates the male from the female one. It is noticed that men wants to be the ruling authority in the workplace and they often deny to work under any female manager. This causes a huge issue to the management to control them and change their thinking ability. Hence it creates an invisible barrier between men and women working in the same organization.

Thus managing these men workforce is one of the difficult approaches of the management team and they often fails to manage this kind of men in the workplace environment. Besides this, another workforce management issue that occurs due to age differences is a mainly different perspective of different generation people working under the same team. It is noticed that sometimes conflict arises due to age differences between the employees working at the same team and in this situation it becomes difficult for the management team to control this type of argument. Also, religious diversity also considers to be one of the problems for the management team, and this may rise to huge conflicts among the employees (Knights & Omanovi?, 2016). Therefore it is clear that managing the workforce diversity is considered to be one of the devastating problem of the management and for diminishing this issue the organization should apply proper strategy.

Managing the workforce diversity is a difficult problem for management and thus for reducing this issue following resolutions should be applied that can help the management team to easily manage the situation. In other words, these problems should be mitigated if the firm makes a concerted effort to motivate as well as encourage the heterogeneous workplace environment by promoting open communication approach, a culture of tolerance and also by creating conflict management strategies. The solution for diminishing this issue of managing workforce diversity in an organization is as follows:

To maintain the diverse workforce in the workplace environment it is necessary for the management team to communicate with their employees effectively. In other words, all the work-related matter should be discussed to this diverse group of employees in the workplace environment (Grissom, Kern & Rodriguez, 2015). Besides this, procedures, policies, safety rules, as well as other important factors that are related to their work should be discussed with them. Hence this will encourage every employee to give their best for the firm. Also, the management team should make proper communication with that of every employee belonging to other culture so that it will help the workers to overcome their cultural as well as language barriers (Byrd, 2014).

Resolutions for mitigating workforce diversity

The strategy the management team should apply to improve their communication with this group of people is that they may use pictures, symbols as well as translating materials so that it helps the different culture workers to understand what the management was trying to say about the work. Hence these are all the strengths of this solution approach, but it is noticed that this approach has also reflected some negative qualities. In some situation, it is evaluated that the native employees think that the firm has given priority to the different culture employee and their status in the group has decreased from the beginning. Hence, it creates a difference in their mind about the fact that their superiors always encourage the employees belonging to other culture for their small piece of work and this has not been occurring in their case (Carter, 2018). Thus, discrimination occurs in the workplace between both these groups of employees and sometimes it gives rise to the huge argument between these groups of workers. Therefore, it creates a negative environment in the workplace and hence it is considered as the major weakness of this communication approach.  

In concerning theoretical aspects, the communication theory will help the management team to get rid of this diverse managing workforce in their working environment. There are five functions of these communication theories of which the first function demonstrate that it is essential for the management to understand and organize the communication experiences of every employee in the workplace (Park & Kim, 2015). The second function defines that it is necessary for the management to know the communication behavior of each member while third communication function describes that the management should broaden their human communication approach and this help to understand others language and culture easily (Colacito, Ghysels, Meng, & Siwasarit, 2016). The fourth function demonstrates that every individual have to control over their communication approach and behave according to the condition and the last function determines the communication challenges occur due to different cultural and social realities and also its solution of adequately managing them.

Emphasizing the communication style also possess some weakness and hence for diminishing the weakness of this communication approach the manager should have to take a great responsibility (Choi & Rainey, 2014). To decrease the conflict that takes place in the diverse workforce group, the managers should have to make proper strategy and arrange a meeting for all of them where they try to convince the native employees that they are also an essential aspect for the organization. In other words, proper communication with these native employees from their managers also help to diminish the communication weakness in coming days (Yin, 2015). Hence, in this way, the managers can maintain their integrity, value, and ethics in this work environment in concerning this solution.

Emphasizing the communication approach

For managing the diverse workforce, it is essential for the management team to treat every employee of their organization as an individual irrespective of their caste, gender, age, religion as well as ethnicity. The major strength of this approach is that if the employee is treated as an individual, then their interest in work will enhance and by this approach, they can give their best effort in the work. Hence the discrimination factors in the workplace will also get reduced if this approach is applied by the management team of an organization (Choi, 2017). In other words, it also helps the management team to judge the success as well as failure rates of each employee which thereby help to give merit to their workers. Thus it can avoid the concept of positive and negative stereotypes attitude. Also by this approach of management will help the employees to view their co-employees as individuals and they easily judge them on their working ability and not on personal factors.

Hence, if this strategy is applied by the management, then the diversity managing issue in the workplace will be easily reduced in the future. Apart from all these strengths, some negative effect sometimes comes if the firm applied this approach in their workplace. It is found that due to this approach many employees think that their working procedure is best and everyone should follow them. It is considered to be a promising approach, but in some situation, it gives rise to the conflict which cannot be easily controlled by the management group. Another weakness of this method is that as the management team provide merits of the individual employee and it creates the negative impression to other employees that do not give their best in the previous year (Manojlovich, Squires, Davies & Graham, 2015). Hence, these employees working capability will decrease due to this demotivated merit that provides by the management team of the organization.

The theory that should be applied in this context by employee performance is the reactance theory. This reactance theory stated that it is essential that a person’s freedom should be a significant aspect that will enhance their performance in both workplaces and also in their life (Starr-Glass, 2017). The theory also demonstrates that if the feeling of freedom is stronger, then resistance to the limitations will go higher. Thus with the help of this theory, the management team readily encourage their employee by proving this merit list which enables them to give their best at work.

Treating every employee as an individual

In this case, the role of the managers is quite important because they are only those who provides correct information of every employee working in that particular department. To maintain their value, integrity, and ethics they will provide the correct results about their department to the management team so that it will help the employee to provide their best in the workplace (Khalighi & Uysal, 2014).

It is essential for the management team to encourage as well as motivate every employee in the workplace so that they can efficiently work together with diverse groups. Hence by using this strategy, the diverse workforce can easily be manageable by the management team, and it also helps to enhance the working ability of each employees (Van Petegem, Soenens, Vansteenkiste & Beyers, 2015). In other words, a diverse work team also help the employees to know and value each other on an individual basis and this can decrease their conflict as well as cultural misunderstandings. Another strength of this solution is that it improves the communication approach of these diverse group of employees, and thereby it helps them to build a strong relationship with each other by keeping aside their attitude and ego.

In other words, diverse workforce also expands the views and experiences of all the employees on the team and thereby it helps them to recognize the strength of their combined perspectives and talents respectively (McDonald, 2015). Apart from such strengths the approach also possesses some weaknesses, and one of such weakness is that in most of the cases diverse team member cannot maintain their bonding attitude and so sometimes argument occurs with the team members. In such a situation, the management team faces difficulty to control it and thus this type of approach needs to be avoided by the organization (Quick, Kam, Morgan, Montero Liberona & Smith, 2014). Another weakness is that instead of recognizing the combined talents the employees of diverse workforce always discriminate one another’s work and hence it causes a negative impact on their working procedure.

The theory of Equity of motivation is applied in this context that states that higher the individual’s perception of equity, higher will be the motivational context of an employee and vice versa (Oetzel, 2017). Hence with the help of this theory, the management team will easily maintain equity in the diverse workforce, and thereby it reduces their managing problem in the workplace environment. Also, this theory also helps the employees of the diverse workforce to balance between the efforts or inputs in the workplace and the rewards or outcomes that anticipated or received.

To maintain the integrity, ethics, and values it is essential that the managers should make a strategy so that every employee in the diverse workforce can be put in the same category (Liu & Fraustino, 2014). Hence by this approach, the employee will not cause any discrimination issue while working with a team of the diverse workforce.  

Conclusion 

The paper concluded that managing workforce diversity is one of the significant key challenges that is faced by management in the business environment of an organization. The issue arises in corresponding to race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, military service, citizenship status, and physical and mental condition as well as other differences between people. The problem can possess an illegal as well as harmful effects on the business environment. Thus for diminishing these issues, proper solutions are provided along with their strengths and weakness respectively. Moreover, the theoretical aspects and the role of manager relating to their integrity, values, and ethics in concerning the solutions also help to decrease the issue.       

The solutions thus provided consists of some weakness, and thus it is necessary for the firm to diminish the weakness. Hence for decreasing the weakness of each solution provided in this context some recommendations are provided which are as follows:

It is recommended that proper strategy should be applied by the management team so that the issues generated through communication aspects will reduce in future. Proper communication approach should be maintained in such a manner that no employee will think about their status and by this way, the condition can be made better in the future.

It is also recommended that only the recognition of dedicated employees should be done by appraisals and rewards so that every employee gets motivated from this, and hence the conflict between the employees will decrease.

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