Manpower Diversity And Its Implications

Critical Analysis of Concept

Manpower diversity is a kind of employee group belonging to various nationalities, socio-cultural,  racial circumstances. This type of people, belonging to the group is having cultural conflation and different socially classified groups. This type of people working in an organization creates the abode of multiculturalism in their attitude and behavior in the workplace. The diversity of the workforce plays a constructive role in the organizational culture. Diversity and inclusion are indissolubly connected. The workers feel more comfortable to explore themselves in a professional atmosphere that provide them to get a representative of a variety of cultural, religious, and behavioral attributes. Thus, it can be stated that workers become more satisfied and their productivity get increased. On the other side, investigations have demonstrated that due to the need to adapt, a powerful, homogeneous culture might strangle natural coherent diversity. 

Discrimination can be considered as the unfair treatment of people based on certain characteristics traits such as nationality, gender, sexual orientation (Adejugbe and Adejugbe 2018). In other words, it can be defined as discerning variation between people as inferior based on their gender, national origin, and age. Discrimination based on ethnicity, nationality, tradition, is known as discrimination through racism. Racism can be considered as the term that primarily represents activities that turn into racial discrimination, furthermore the beliefs and prejudices that nurture them. Institutional race-based discrimination in the workplace exists when workers of various racial, linguistic, cultural, and religious backgrounds face unpreventable and unjustified discrepancies in hiring, selection, and conducting interviews, task allocation, seniority, job autonomy, performance appraisal, coaching, promotion, monetary compensation, rejection, sackings, and pension (Trenerry, Franklin and Paradies 2012). As a result, differences in desertion, satisfaction, engagement, engagement, inspiration, commitment among employees of varied national, religious, and societal, backgrounds. Bullying, intimidation, rude behavior, isolation, oral/physical abuse, biased appraisal programe in the workplace, as well as impractically positive feedback, are all examples of interpersonal discrimination.

White Privilege is the amalgamation of two terms as white and privilege. White privilege can be described as inferred social benefits provided to people by their skin color, relative to those who has been encountered the consequences of racism (Bridges 2019).  According to the quotation of Francis Kendall, “White privilege is an institutional (rather than personal) set of benefits granted to those of us who, by race, resemble the people who dominate the powerful positions in our institutions.” White privilege is a conceptual framework that has a connection to its meaning, probably most common incident in this period of discourteous conversation (Collins 2018). The multiple term’s double impact causes pushback.1) For people who were not used to their ethnicity being used to characterize them, the word white causes discomfort. And 2) To poor and rural white people, the phrase privilege sounds alien, as if it doesn’t pertain to them — as if it implies they have never struggled. White privilege does not entail whatever any white person performs is extraordinary.unjustified; most white people experiencing tremendous success have worked tremendously hard to achieve it.

Support of the Theories

The discrimination concept can disclose the elements of different types of discrimination such as direct and indirect discrimination, explicit and automation discrimination (Nelson et al. 2019). The studies of these theories of discrimination make the practitioners of diversity in the workplace aware of the aspects of discrimination that happened silently in the workplace. It can be reported that 175 CEOs of many MNCs have tried to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Most of the researchers suggest that the low diversity and inclusion may have promoted discriminatory behavior. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw created the term “intersectionality” to express how some people resort to different types of institutional tyranny that overlap. In this polarising and agitated political climate, it’s critical to work together to integrate communities based on culture, policy, and media insights (Atewologun 2018). Many firms have attempted to promote more inclusivity in recent years by urging employees to “bring your whole self to work.” This is an intriguing notion, but it fails to account for the intersectional lens that is essential to allow people to genuinely express all elements of their identity in the workplace without fear of harassment.

 

Source: Dalberg

Incorporating intersectionality into the activities and mindsets of organizations is difficult but necessary on the path towards achieving equality for all. Both internal D&I operations and external-facing work require an intersectional lens. Client-facing organizations, such as healthcare and counseling services centers, welfare care, legislative organizations, and advisory services, have a pivotal function in incorporating and prioritizing an intersectional perspective in their operation. If intersectionality is not considered, they risk the inability to meet the requirements of the customers. There are certain ways such as providing the opportunity for the equal right to education and awareness, Complete knowledge for change of internal policies and rules.

Cultural competence can be defined as the ability of a person or organization that made interaction, work, and employee engagement in effective ways and help to develop meaningful relationships with people of various cultural backgrounds (Sharifi, Adib-Hajbaghery and Najafi 2019). Here for this section, Accenture has been chosen for a particular organization to show the practical implications of cultural competence practices. Accenture is a multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing firm with offices in 52 countries and a workforce of 2,23,000 people. They serve clients in 120 countries and provide a wide range of services in efforts to support them become or stay high-performing enterprises and organizations. Diverse workers are valued by a diverse customer base, and Accenture sees diversity as an important determinant of company success in today’s economically tough world (Kaur et al. 2020). Individuals bring their distinctive features to the workplace and engage with colleagues in a variety of different ways, culminating in career advancement outcomes and organizational productivity. Accenture always encourages its employees for further development (Perna 2020). The organization attains values to diversity and contributions made by the employees. The organizational culture that Accenture follows is trust, openness, and inclusion. Integrity and respect are the core value of the cultural competence of Accenture. Diversity has a wide range of advantages, notably wise decision and problem-solving, more innovation and ingenuity, which leads to improved product design, and more effective marketing to a wide range of consumer groups. Recognizing diversity allows talented employees to feel valued and a sense of connection, strengthening their commitment to the enterprise and encouraging each of them to perform in their distinctive manner. Accenture strives to recruit and retain a diverse global employee with a diverse range of skills and expertise that matches the communities and customers it exists to serve bound by a common culture and committed to supporting clients in achieving excellent productivity. It is committed to workforce equity because it values inclusion and diversity.

Application of the Theories

Conflict management aids in the identification of a common way, a resolution to any problems, and the successful execution of a project. Problems must be handled at the correct time to prevent confrontation and its adverse outcomes afterward. Conflict management skills can be worked as the catalyst to become the growth of a diverse group (Cletus et al. 2018). As it helps the employees to understand the different needs and tastes of the employees. It enables the individuals to handle their diversity, equality, and inclusion-related conflict.

Effective communication skills can create an environment of open and free communication across the higher authority that makes the employees feel an integrated part of the organization (Gongora et al. 2020). Miscommunications among employees of diverse workgroups are also more likely due to language problems. Questions should be encouraged from both native and non-native speakers. Raising questions for clarification should be fostered as a shared standard, and conferences should include additional time for this.

To coordinate their behavior, culturally homogeneous work groups depend on presumptions and standards. Shared understanding also enhances group members’ trust and intimacy. The formation of a shared group culture is required for the successful functioning of multicultural workgroups. The first step in forming a collaborative relationship is for members to interact in a discussion of their cultural similarities and differences, with an emphasis on discrepancies that have a direct effect on group activities. A cultural intelligence program with an experienced instructor can help individuals become even more cognizant of orientation within groups.

Cultural intelligence, according to research, strengthens effective teamwork, assimilation, and trustworthiness, as well as the emergence of shared group values in heterogeneous teams. As a result, enhanced cooperation and cohesiveness boost group performance by facilitating the exchange of ideas and knowledge, strengthening creative collaborations, and promoting team productivity (Pesch and Bouncken 2018). Cultural intelligence also improves relationships with people outside of the workgroup. Formal training and spontaneous development activities such as multinational rotations or intercultural counseling can help the management of diverse workgroups build the cultural intelligence of their workers.

Engaging with coworkers in a multicultural setting necessitates a certain level of patience. People from various ethnicities approach activities and human connections in a multitude of ways. These are neither correct nor incorrect; they are dissimilar. Having the patience to completely grasp where the coworkers are originating from in different occupational settings might help the practitioners operate more efficiently and effectively together to achieve a competitive advantage.

References

Adejugbe, A. and Adejugbe, A., 2018. Women and discrimination in the workplace: A Nigerian perspective. Available at SSRN 3244971.

Atewologun, D., 2018. Intersectionality theory and practice. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management.

Bridges, K.M., 2019. White privilege and white disadvantage. Va. L. Rev., 105, p.449.

Cletus, H.E., Mahmood, N.A., Umar, A. and Ibrahim, A.D., 2018. Prospects and challenges of workplace diversity in modern day organizations: A critical review. HOLISTICA–Journal of Business and Public Administration, 9(2), pp.35-52.

Collins, C., 2018. What is white privilege, really. Teaching Tolerance, 60, pp.39-41.

Gongora, J., Vost, M., Zaki, S., Sutherland, S. and Taylor, R., 2020. Fostering diversity competence in the veterinary curriculum. In Transforming Lives and Systems (pp. 63-73). Springer, Singapore.

Kaur, R., Kaur, G., Sahay, U. and Saini, K., 2020. A study of diversity management in different companies and different sectors. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(3), pp.284-303.

Nelson, R.L., Sendroiu, I., Dinovitzer, R. and Dawe, M., 2019. Perceiving discrimination: Race, gender, and sexual orientation in the legal workplace. Law & Social Inquiry, 44(4), pp.1051-1082.

Perna, L.L., 2020. Being employer of choice: the impact of cultural diversity on employer attractiveness.

Pesch, R. and Bouncken, R.B., 2018. How to achieve benefits from diversity in international alliances: Mechanisms and cultural intelligence. Global Strategy Journal, 8(2), pp.275-300.

Sharifi, N., Adib-Hajbaghery, M. and Najafi, M., 2019. Cultural competence in nursing: A concept analysis. International journal of nursing studies, 99, p.103386.

Trenerry, B., Franklin, H. and Paradies, Y., 2012. Preventing race-based discrimination and supporting cultural diversity in the workplace: an evidence review: full report.