Write an essay on Personal and Managerial Effectiveness.
In recent times, where many companies are looking for effective measures for better productivity and profitability, managing authorities emphasize on economic globalization and workforce diversity for achieving that objective (Barak 2013). Jonsen et al. (2013) also mentioned that diverse workforce can be attained through hiring individuals having a broad range of characteristics and experience. However, they characteristics of workforce diversity also include working personnel with different race, ethnicity, religion, ability and sexual orientation. Podsiadlowski et al. (2013) depicts that the primary advantage of workforce diversity in an organization shows their commitment to embrace cultural differences and traditions. Workforce diversity not only helps an organization towards globalization but it also fulfills the generational gaps by valuing every diverse culture.
The major concern of this business report is to analyze the challenge that a manager faces in a diverse workforce. The report also highlights the benefits of effective diversity management within the organization. As a case study, the organization that is selected for this assignment is Tesco Plc. Tesco Plc. is a grocery and general merchandise retailer organization that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. They have 6800 stores with 476,000 employees, who are serving millions of customers per week and workforce diversity plays a crucial role in the success of this organization (Tesco plc 2016).
Diversity in workplace can be illustrated from the circumstance where an employee presents the difference in their culture, perspective, and knowledge and experience in their workplace. Thus, Harvey and Allard (2015) depicts that diversity can be classified into three categories- physical, cultural and socio-economic. Age, gender, race, appearance, color, cognitive style and personality are the physical characteristics that differ in every individual. Ethnic or national origin, marital/family status, sexual orientation, religion and language are the cultural aspects of diversity. Lastly, education, job function, profession and social class are the socio-economic diversity based on which diversity can be explained among the employee in a workplace. An organization must take appropriate steps so that every individual can work with equal pride within the workplace.
Diverse workforce results in better creativity among the working personnel and they discuss their thinking and perspective with each other. Okoro and Washington (2012) also depicts that this sharing knowledge enhances the problem solving power and decision-making ability that helps in a better productive approach for the organization. In case of Tesco Plc. diversity in workplace helps the organization in communicating with diverse customers in the languages they are accustomed in order to gain more customer satisfaction.
Martín Alcazar et al. (2013) mentions that diverse workforce supply a greater variety of solutions to the sourcing and allocation of resources problems through their talents and experiences. This enables the organization to provide a broader service range on a global basis. On the contrary Wambui et al. (2013) illustrates that those organization which supports diversity in their workplace have the best employee, who are serving their best for better productivity.
According to Ryan and Wessel (2015), workforce diversification enhances the competitive edge for any organization and increases the loyalty towards the business procedures. It is evident that if employee gets desirable value in their workplace, the organization can retain their employees by treating them as a valuable asset for the company. Garnero et al. (2014) also depicts that in a diversified workplace overseas employee also gets attracted and join the organization that results in better productivity of their organization. In Tesco Plc the talent hunt is organized for better business outcome and also offer new job roles to talented employees so that they can get fair opportunity in the workplace.
Workforce diversification has numerous advantages, but some disadvantages are also there that needs to be overcome for a better output. Byrd and Scott (2014) demonstrate that due to language and cultural difference some employees cannot communicate with the other people in the workplace as they lack in confidence how other will treat with them. (Saxena 2014) also depicts that some people discriminate other on religious dissimilarity and often harass them which result in low morale and poor work performance.
The Equality Act 2010 is an effective legislation in UK, which illustrates that every person of an organization should get the equal facility and chance to be in the organization (Council 2012). Some organization does not provide equal opportunities to racial and ethnic minorities group and offer them less salary for the same work compared to other native employees. () also illustrated that in some organization, employees who are physically challenged workers are forced to leave the work as they asked for more paid leaves than other employees. Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Race Relations Act 1976 are some legislation that is regulated against such discrimination so that people with different ability can work with same pride (Widiss 2013).
There are some employees in the organization those who refuse to accept the new workplace policies like workplace diversification. Malewar and Nair (2013) describes that these people often decline to work collaboratively and suppress their idea within themselves and behave ruthlessly with the new employees. Ryan and Wessel (2015) hence portrayed that in this way, not only the discipline of the workplace degrades but also the morale of another employee will be declined to a significant level.
Bond et al. (2014) portrays that planning for workforce diversification is difficult and it needs proper knowledge of the different culture of their employees. Standifer et al. (2013) also demonstrate that Tesco Plc hires experts like diversity advocate’s advice to formulate a plan for introducing new workplace policy that provides equal opportunity to all the employees in the workplace. Kinyanjui (2013) further illustrates that arrangements of resources, proper training classes for structuring and implementing a customized strategy is another difficulty for implementation of the workforce diversification within the organization.
In order to facilitate the function of every department of the organization, providing training to the employee for accepting the diverse culture in the workplace is not enough. Managing the implemented workforce diversification organizational policies will is required. Truxillo et al. (2015) suggests that workforce diversity management can be achieved by Tesco Plc if they will hire people based on their performance and not on their culture or religions. Emerson and Murphy (2014) further suggest that managing authorities of the concerned organization must have to rate their qualification according to their achievements and their quality of their work and provide them appropriate career opportunities. Diversity management also focuses on how the authorities treat complaints of favoritism or discrimination in the workplace and take actions to overcome the adversity of the discrimination (Trax et al. 2015).
Workforce diversity fosters the nature of respecting the other personnel and the differences in their work styles and the cultural differences from where they belong. Wrench (2014) also depicts that employees recognize the strengths and talents of their colleagues and sometimes they can get the optimal solution to accomplish their job role.
Peretz et al. (2015.) mentioned that if an organization values the people working for them, they will serve their best for the organization’s productivity. Valuing the cultural diversity of their employees and then formulated organizational policies according to that will attract new candidates to get associated with Tesco Plc. Kirton and Greene (2015) also enlighten on the fact that business reputations flourish when a company shows their respect for other cultures and people other than their native employees through their aggressive outreach and recruiting efforts.
According to the viewpoint of Colbert et al. (2016), diverse workforce attains the exposure of the cultures and backgrounds of the employees. Martin (2014) also affirms that every employee possesses different ability and experience and traditional generation workers can learn new technologies and their functionalities from the tech-savvy millennial generation employee whereas the contemporary workers will learn about the traditional approach to accomplishing the job they have to complete.
Richard et al. (2013) mentions that employee who acknowledges the cultural differences between the colleagues are also able to analyze the common point of concern between them. Tesco Plc give importance to a diverse workforce as it makes the employees learn about respecting other members and reduces the likelihood of conflict. Bakar and McCann (2014) further illustrates that workplace diversity preserves the quality of employees’ relationships and improves the interpersonal relationship among them.
According to Guerrero (2013), employees with diverse language skills have the ability to communicate with multicultural people and they can perform well in foreign regions if the organization plans to outsource their business sin other regions. As a result, if an organization desires to reach markets in foreign countries, efficient employees will not only get a chance of promotion to represent their organization in the foreign country, but they also get an opportunity for their career development by finding new and challenging career opportunities (Wanrooy et al. 2013). In addition to that, Kim et al. (2015) illustrates that these employees will be more interested in learning multinational business strategies for the betterment of that organization.
Marchiondo et al. (2015) portrays that manager have other responsibility to fulfill and thus they often do not have proper time to analyze every person and their behavior in the workplace. Some people discriminate other on religion basis and force them to change their religion that is against of any organizational policy. Barak (2013) illustrates that offensive behavior at work, lack of respect and ignorance, bias in recruitment or promotion and denial of a business license are some of the problems faced by the employee in an organization that a multicultural people faced.
Some legislation in UK recognitions protects employees against discrimination based on their religious and cultural beliefs, age, gender and educational qualification. The Equality Act 2010 though assure that everyone should get a job based on their quality but some organization illegally hire some people in less salary that is a major challenge for a manager to look after (Davies 2015). For instance, child labor sand women labor are two different cases where some organization ask them to work extra at a cost of little money. Moreover, Clucas (2012) also depicts that according to Discrimination Act 1995 and Race Relations Act 1976, employee are free from any discrimination however employee themselves do not accept these people which lead to the state of isolation in them that reduces their performance and forces them to resign from their jobs.
In a diverse workforce, numerous people belong from different culture and religion and understand different language. Hynes (2015) depicts that it is not possible for a manager to communicate with every person in their known language and hence there is a communication gap between those diverse people and the manager that results in misunderstanding. In order to overcome this adversity, Moran et al. (2014) suggests that managers should encourage their staffs to learn about their coworkers and communication methods. This can be done through informal gathering and unofficial meetings where employees can share their experience and perception with other.
Another managerial problem that the manager is facing in a diverse workplace is random resignation of employees from the organization (Guerrero 2013). Kirton and Greene (2015) depicts that individuals who do not consider the diversity plan are the biggest challenge for the managers, as they will never follow the regulations and possess a negative attitude that slows down positive change and decreases productivity.
Parrotta et al. (2012) enlightens that implementation of diverse workforce in the workplace is crucial otherwise a well-communicated working environment cannot be obtained. Saxena (2014) mentions that managers must have to communicate the diversity plan with the staff through meetings and diversity conferences. However, some employee do not agrees with the terms and policies an origination adopts and this results in conflicts between them, which degrades the productivity and work quality.
According to Bond and Haynes (2014), it is difficult for a manager to take effective steps to train their employees. In a diverse workplace where many people are from diverse culture cannot act in a same way through a common training program. Widiss (2013) on the other hand suggested that a customized training programs can work in such scenario, where the training program will make them learn how to communicate and cooperate in the workplace.
In this business report, Tesco Plc, which is one of the largest retail industries in the world and the leading retail organization in UK, is considered. In this section, the application and practical implementation of theory will be discussed that is undertaken by Tesco Plc.
The monitoring of the plan for the workforce diversity initiates from the time when a candidate apply for employment in their career section of the web-portal. Standifer et al. (2013) demonstrates that Tesco Plc is registered with the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland and analyzes the community background of the job applicants and colleagues on an annual basis. Furthermore, Patrick and Kumar (2012) also highlight that Tesco promotes fair participation between the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities.
Bezrukova et al. (2012) illustrates that every year Tesco Plc recruits many employee across the world for their organization so that they can serve the customers with best possible services and understanding. In such circumstance, Kalinoski et al. (2013) depicts that Tesco provides training regarding employment policies and practices to their employees every three years so that they can behave ethically with the people belongs to diverse culture.
According to Roulstone and Williams (2014), Tesco provide equal opportunity to their disables employees and make reasonable adjustments so that their process remains fair. Tesco also provides training and development programs to their special employees so that they can match up the working ability of other employees. In addition to that, Dwertmann and Boehm (2016) also demonstrate that Tesco hires women employee to illustrate their organizational policy that supports women employment.
Tesco Plc never considers any form of harassment or discrimination against any employee. Richard et al. (2013) illustrates that the managing authorities of Tesco Plc investigates about the person’s background if any report will be filed against a person for harassing someone. The concerned organization takes proper disciplinary action against the person that could result in the dismissal with or without notice.
Colbert et al. (2016) mentions that effective training will help employee to build skills and value the diversity they have in their workplace. The training programs helps the employee to understand that they can learn a lot from the people who have experience more than them and the working approaches through which the organizational goals can be achieved in a optimal way. Malewar and Nair (2013) also demonstrated that this training program is effective in making the people understand who belong from diverse culture about the communication approach with their colleagues and about their business policies.
Garnero et al. (2014) mentioned that Tesco has formulated a special diversity committee for accomplishing the goals of diversity plans. The primary reason for formulating this diversity committee is to analyze whether the diversity programs aligned with strategic plans. Jonsen et al. (2013) illustrates that this Committee featured speakers that are either the leaders or the employee who speaks their experience and their cultural importance and how they can implement the working approach in their culture for better outcome. Tesco Plc also emphasizes on diversity workshops, mentoring and community outreach programs for supporting the diverse culture in their workplace.
Conclusion
In this business report, the challenges faced by a manager of an organization in the workplace are considered. The assignment also enlightens the effective diversity management in the workplace so that the organization can achieve their business objectives by valuing their cultural and traditional belief and respecting their age, gender and qualification differences. Tesco Plc is the organization that is taken for this assignment which is a leading retail industry that serves thousands of customers every day with efficiency. Discrimination against the employees is the main reason for the poor performance of the employees in the workplace.
Moreover, proper management of employment terms and conditions are also a big challenge for the managers as the employees must have to follow the policies provide by the organization. In addition to that, as people belong from diverse culture there is a high chance of poor communication among them as these employees are unable to understand their languages and culture. Providing proper training to the employee regarding the workforce diversity plan is another challenge that is faced by the managers in the workplace and can be overcome by regular monitoring of the diversity program so that all the activities in the workplace can be accomplished. The manager can resolve the diversity issues in the workplace by offering equal chance to disabled people and minority group and take appropriate action against the one who discriminates other against the organizational policies. Furthermore, training and education programs and formulation of diversity committee are also crucial aspect through which the workforce diversity can be managed.
Assessing and evaluating the diversity process is an integral part of a management system within an organization. Thus, it is crucial to scrutinize the diversity plan in the workplace and monitor whether every employee follow the diversity plan at a regular interval of time.
It is also important to develop the existing plan according to the changing requirement and demands of the employee. Every year there are so many recruitments in Tesco and hence it is an obligatory approach to develop the plan. Training programs should be updated from time to time so that the employees can communicate well with their multicultural colleges.
The managing authorities of Tesco should communicate with each employee and should learn about the problems their employees are facing in term of discrimination. In this way, the perceptual, cultural and language barriers can be overcome and the employees feel free to trust their authorities that will motivate them to work for Tesco Plc.
Tesco Plc. should take initiatives for promoting their cultural diversity in society. They can publish regular articles in newspapers or sponsor their products in cultural activities from their culturally diverse employee. In this ways, not only they can accomplish voluntary work but also they ca enhance their corporate social responsibility activities that will help Tesco Plc to gain reputation in the community.
The manager of Tesco Plc should enjoy the difference among the culture and tradition among their workplace and welcome their knowledge and consider this as a valuable experience. The existing employee must encourage them to represent their culture’s etiquette practices and everyone should treat them fairly by providing them job responsibility according to their ability and offer desired promotions and recognition in the workplace.
A customizable employee satisfaction survey can represent the exact requirement that is included in the diversity plan. In this way, the managing authorities can assure that everyone’s perception is being taken into consideration in the development of the diversity plan.
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