Research And Evaluation In Education System: Diversity In Workplace

Diversity in the workplace

Discuss about the Research and Evaluation in Education System.

Diversity is illustrated as comprehending, accepting and valuing divergences among individuals with respect to age, gender or ethnicity. Workplace diversity is referred to as the variety of differences between individuals in an organization. It does not involve how individuals perceive themselves but the way they perceive others. The success of the organization as well as competitiveness relies upon the ability to accept variety and comprehend the benefits. A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world as well as marketplace (Mertens 2014). Diversity in the workplace brings high value to the organization. The management benefits and associates by generating a competitive edge as well as enhancing work productivity.     

The report provides an overview about diversity in the workplace that is clearly stated as the subject of imperative attention. It also illustrates about the challenges as well as opportunities that are faced by the managers of the 21^st century.

The business case for diversity as well as inclusion is basically associated to the innovation strategy of the company. Several voices have a broad range of experiences where this helps to create innovative ideas about commodities and services. The diversity in the workplace has been given so much attention lately because a diverse workforce attracts top talents. In the fight for international talent, workplace diversity and inclusion policies are mostly designed precisely as recruiting and maintenance tools. Companies take several strategies in order to engross the sorts of diverse population they hope to bring on board (Harvey and Allard 2015). The diversity goals and priorities of the organization will not be altered deliberately. However, the impact of diversity on innovation may come into sharper focus. The diversity in the workplace is likely to promote mutual respect among workers. Conflicts among the employees crop up in the work environment. The capability to resolve conflicts in the workplace minimizes probable liability for worker complaints that in turn escalate the formal matters such as legal issues. The quality of the relationships between workers is also preserved with the help of workplace diversity. The workplace diversity leads to business reputation that is imperative for workers as it manifest itself in assembling an immense reputation for the company. This in turn leads to better profitability as well as opportunities for employees (Barak 2016). Diversity in the workplace is imperative within the organization as well as outside the organization. The reputation of the business flourishes when an organization demonstrates their commitment to diversity with the help of aggressive outreach as well as recruiting efforts.

Challenges and opportunities confronting new managers

An organization is mostly known for its ethics as well as appreciation for diverse talent that is able to draw a broader pool of qualified applicants. It also leads to increased exposure to workers from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Workers learn from co-employees whose style of work differs. This is mostly true for workers within multigenerational work surroundings (Bond and Haynes 2014). In Apple Inc, for example the workplace diversity leads to a holistic view of diversity that looks beyond the customary measurements. The workplace diversity shapes up the employees so that they are able adjust in all types of situations. It helps them flourish in a diverse culture that includes disability, service to the country as well as religious belief. In other words, with the help of workplace diversity in Apple, a culture of inclusion has been created (Standifer et al. 2013). The company wants their employees to be comfortable so that they can work whole-heartedly in the organization. The generation of inclusive culture takes both commitment as well as movement that help the workers to identify as well as address insentient racial and gender prejudice. The Company has also been targeting to cultivate diverse leadership as well as tech talent.

The management of diversity is nothing new and in order to reach workforce diversity, the attitude requires to shift to one of the inclusion. The management of diversity is an on-going procedure that unleashes several talents as well as capabilities, which a diverse population bring to an organization. Multiculturalism acts as the art of the management of diversity in a total quality manner. It is measured as the only option that is left to the managers in an ever-increasing ethnically pluralistic environment. In the trade world, the process of multiculturalism is best sustained through supervision of varieties. It is considered as an inherent approach to trade principles and human interrelations that recognizes and compliments the contributions of cultural groups (Sweet and Meiksins 2015).

The biggest challenges that are faced by the managers include unhealthy tensions, loss of productivity due to increased conflict as well as inability to draw talented individuals of all kinds. The requirements of the 21^st century demands a community that is ethnically sensitive as well as globally focused, with a direction toward the future as compared to the past. Multiculturalism acts as the new paradigm for trade for the 21^st century managers. It acts as the political ping-pong term that is largely misused and highly misinterpreted. Effectual managers mostly involve the art of managing diversity that acts as the great concern to all individuals (Sabharwal 2014). Diversity management is a strategy to promote the perception as well as incorporation of diversity in organizations as well as institutions. Management of workplace diversity requires to be comprehensive to manage the divergences that individual brings for the productive welfare of everyone (Canas and Sondak 2013).

The managers mostly feel threatened by working with individuals of diverse culture, gender as well as age. The first challenge is associated with increase in the cost of training. The increase in cost mostly comes from costs that are associated with seminars, programs as well as lectures to be provided to promote diversity in the corporation. They instruct employees how to acknowledge the behaviours and facts or opinion of others. These programs also instruct one how to contract with divergences and discrimination in a specialized and social mode. The degree to which directors distinguish diversity and its probable advantages and drawbacks defines an approach of the organization to managing the diversity. The most widespread disagreement takes place is from feeling advanced. However, if managers ignore such conflicts, the performance of the company is likely to suffer (Janssens and Zanoni 2014). On the other hand, if such conflicts can be managed as well as controlled, it can lead to improvement in performance. Another major challenge is related to augment in the turnover of labour as well as absenteeism in order to have a diverse workplace. Misconduct of diversity in the form of unused access or adverse conduct can have negative penalty, such as slowing down aptitude and motivation of workers. This leads to inferior job performance. Consequently, when an organization disregards the survival and meaning of employee’s diversity, disagreement can appear and neither the business nor its workers will comprehend their potential (Landy and Conte 2016).

Poor communication acts as another major challenge for the managers of the 21^st century. This is mostly because workplace diversity consists of individuals of diverse age groups, gender and religion. Along with these divergences, several types of communication take place. Hence, the management of diversity as well as poor communication acts as the major challenge for a manager. Misinterpretation takes place due to misunderstanding as well as poor relationships among the employees. In order to promote better communication, the managers are required to persuade their staff to learn extra about their co-workers and communication techniques. This can be done through office withdraws, recurrent diversity meetings and diversity tutorials (Carr-Ruffino 2016). Disorganization is also likely to take place that leads to unorganized diversity workplace policy that is almost as ineffectual as not having a diversity plan. Managers are required to take an organized strategy that will help to incorporate a thought policy. This includes aberration with managers and decision-makers about how to efficiently put into practice diversity in the workplace. If a budget permits, an organization can bring in a diversity specialist to help the manager create a plan. Communicate the preparation to employees. One of the major mistakes managers make is not efficiently communicating the diversity policy with the staff. Efficient communication can be done through meetings, memorandums and diversity conferences. Getting the employees on board is half the fight in putting into practice a policy. It is imperative to give confidence to workers to take diversity classes and tutorials, or plan diversity recoil to permit everyone to be acquainted with each other. It is also required to set objectives for diversity with tangible objectives. It is required to begin with long-term goals and work rewards (Cavanagh et al. 2017). Turn up with a catalogue of things you would like to accomplish as a company and ways to realize them.          

The opportunity that confronts to the managers due to workplace diversity includes successful management of cultural diversity that has advantage over other companies in employing individuals. Organisations that administer workforce diversity problems increase an analysis into markets consisting of alternative groups and women. Groups of people from miscellaneous backgrounds can be more imaginative than groups with harmonized backgrounds. On the other hand, varied groups can create enhanced decisions through a broad range of viewpoints and better methodical analysis of struggle and issues (Colbert, Yee and George 2016). Aptitude to administer diversity augments the flexibility of an administration. More rapid response to environmental changes makes available a competitive advantage. Some other opportunities of workplace diversity management are that it helps the companies to offer high superiority services to the customers. Workplace diversity management is an excellent tool for the companies so that they can work without difficulty pierce in an altering market situation. It is obliging in large-scale business renovation. It is a tool for total quality management (Ekberg et al. 2016).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the requirements of the 21^st century demands a population that is ethnically sensitive as well as globally focused, with a direction toward the future as compared to the past. Multiculturalism acts as the new paradigm for trade for the 21^st century managers. One of the major mistakes managers make is not efficiently communicating the diversity policy with the staff. This can conducted through meetings, memorandums and diversity conferences. It can also be concluded that the capability to resolve conflicts in the workplace minimizes probable liability for worker complaints that in turn escalate the formal matters such as litigation. The quality of the relationships between workers is also preserved with the help of workplace diversity. The success of the organization as well as competitiveness relies upon the ability to embrace variety and comprehend the benefits.Management of workplace diversity requires to be comprehensive to manage the divergences that individual brings for the productive welfare of everyone.

References

Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and policy implications. Social Issues and Policy Review, 8(1), pp.167-201.

Canas, K. and Sondak, H., 2013. Opportunities and challenges of workplace diversity. Pearson Higher Ed.

Carr-Ruffino, N., 2016. Leadership Opportunities for Managing Diversity. In Handbook of Research on Race, Gender, and the Fight for Equality (pp. 298-320). IGI Global.

Cavanagh, J., Bartram, T., Meacham, H., Bigby, C., Oakman, J. and Fossey, E., 2017. Supporting workers with disabilities: a scoping review of the role of human resource management in contemporary organisations. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 55(1), pp.6-43.

Colbert, A., Yee, N. and George, G., 2016. The digital workforce and the workplace of the future. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), pp.731-739.

Ekberg, K., Pransky, G.S., Besen, E., Fassier, J.B., Feuerstein, M., Munir, F. and Blanck, P., 2016. New business structures creating organizational opportunities and challenges for work disability prevention. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 26(4), pp.480-489.

Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity. Pearson.

Janssens, M. and Zanoni, P., 2014. Alternative diversity management: Organizational practices fostering ethnic equality at work. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30(3), pp.317-331.

Landy, F.J. and Conte, J.M., 2016. Work in the 21st Century, Binder Ready Version: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. John Wiley & Sons.

Mertens, D.M., 2014. Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Sage publications.

Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.

Standifer, R.L., Lester, S.W., Schultz, N.J. and Windsor, J.M., 2013. How age similarity preference, uncertainty, and workplace challenges affect conflict. human relations, 66(12), pp.1597-1618.

Sweet, S. and Meiksins, P., 2015. Changing contours of work: Jobs and opportunities in the new economy. Sage Publications.