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Business Ethics: "Workplace Diversity"

This document discusses workplace diversity and managing a diverse workforce. It defines diversity and explains its benefits, such as diverse ideas and viewpoints that help organizations grow and understand different demographics. Challenges to diversity like communication and resistance to change are also covered. The document recommends prioritizing communication, treating employees as individuals, encouraging diverse work groups, using objective criteria, and being open-minded. Effective diversity management requires documented policies, training, and sensitivity to different cultures.

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Sneha Sinha
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442 views5 pages

Business Ethics: "Workplace Diversity"

This document discusses workplace diversity and managing a diverse workforce. It defines diversity and explains its benefits, such as diverse ideas and viewpoints that help organizations grow and understand different demographics. Challenges to diversity like communication and resistance to change are also covered. The document recommends prioritizing communication, treating employees as individuals, encouraging diverse work groups, using objective criteria, and being open-minded. Effective diversity management requires documented policies, training, and sensitivity to different cultures.

Uploaded by

Sneha Sinha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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For Office Use:

Grade

BUSINESS ETHICS
Case Analysis Report on

“WORKPLACE DIVERSITY”

Submitted By:

Name: Sneha Sinha

Roll No: 181159

Section: A

Batch: MBA - FT (2018-2020)

Submitted To: Prof. Tanvi Faldu

Institute of Management, Nirma University

Date of Submission: 21st August 2018


Workplace Diversity
I would like to start with a couple of quotes:

“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.”


- Malcolm Forbes

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.”


- Stephen R. Covey

As the above two quotes clearly states what is diversity. Before understanding Workspace
Diversity, let’s understand what is Diversity? It can be defined as “Diversity encompasses complex
differences and similarities in perspectives, identities, and points of view among members of an
institution as well as among individuals who make up the wider community. It includes gender,
religious, race, age, disability, linguistic differences, socio-economic status and cultural
background. As of now we understood the basic definition of diversity. Now let’s understand what
do we mean by Workplace diversity?
Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between individuals in an organization.
The world’s increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse
cultures, beliefs and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular
marketplace. They are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly
every continent. For this reason profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more
creative and open to change. What is workplace diversity? Workplace diversity is about
acknowledging differences and adapting work practices to create an inclusive environment in
which diverse skills, perspectives and background are valued. It’s about understanding the
individual differences in the people we work with that arise from a broad range of backgrounds
and lifestyle and recognizing the value of using these different perspective ideas and ways of
working to enhance the quality and outcomes of work.
Benefits at workplace diversity an organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its
ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits when organizations actively access their
handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans. Multiple benefits
are reported such as
 Employees from diverse backgrounds have different perspective and diverse ideas which
helps organization to grow at a faster rate. They have their different point of view. As per
data around 67% organization works with diverse set of employees.
 It helps organization to understand their target demographics and what moves them.
 It increases employee satisfaction by improving interaction with diverse clients.
 Increased adaptability
 Broader service range
 Variety of viewpoints
 More effective execution

Challenges of diversity
Challenges of diversity in the workplace taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity of the
workplace is not without its challenges. Some of those challenges are
 Communication
 Resistance to change
 Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies

How to manage diversity in workplace


Managing diversity in organization is mostly taken care by HR professionals. The challenges faced
by them can be reduced by implementing the following practices:
 Prioritize Communication – All the important information like policies, procedures, safety
rules etc should be effectively communicated to the employees. Other issues like language
and cultural barriers can be overcome by the organization using various methods.
 Treat each employee as Individual: Each employee should be treated as individual.
Assumptions should not be made on any basis. All the recognition and failures should be
given on the basis of individual merit. It should not be compared with others.
 Encourage employees to work in diverse group: Organization should encourage employees
to work in diverse group. Groups should not be made on the basis of state, region, culture
etc.
 Base standard on objective criteria: Rules and regulations should be same for all the
employees regardless of their background. It should not be changed for any one.
 Be Open-Minded: Recognize and support the thinking of every individual. It should not be
judged differently. Organization should be open to incorporate a diverse range of
perspective towards achieving organizational goals.

Women in the workplace


Need to understand diversity is also driven by women in the workplace. Today’s workforce has
the highest levels of employment participation ever by women. The number of dual income
families and single working mothers has increased. Organizational restructure there have been
significant changes to organizations as a result of downsizing and outsourcing which has greatly
affected human resource management. Work practices have changed due to impact of globalization
and technology. There’s a trend toward longer working hours. Generally speaking reorganizations
usually result in fewer people doing more legislation federal and state. Equal opportunity
legislation make discrimination in workplaces illegal. These laws specify the rights and
responsibilities of both associates and employers in the workplace and hold both groups
accountable. Required tools for managing diversity.

Policies and Practices


To build the diverse workplace, company should recruit people with different background &
knowledge base. Also policies should be there to protect employee rights. It should also follow the
government rules and regulation. All the policies should be written and approved by the
organization. Also there should be a feedback system. All the positive and negative feedbacks
should be taken care. Code of conduct should outline the company’s path towards diversity.

Documentation of Policies and Procedures


Documented policies and procedures are the critical component of an effective compliance
management system in some ways. If a regulatory agency doesn’t see documentation then they
consider that a policy or procedure isn’t happening at all. Policies and procedures help create
consistency and standards within an organization. Training new employee’s policies and
procedures are also effective in monitoring and auditing internal company practices in order for
policies and procedures to be effective. They should be reviewed whenever laws or requirements
change but at least annually.

Effective Managers Responsibilities


Effective managers are aware that certain skills are necessary for creating a successful diverse
workforce. First managers must understand discrimination and its consequences. Second managers
must recognize their own cultural biases and prejudices. Diversity is not about differences among
groups but rather about differences among individuals. Each individual is unique and does not
represent or speak for a particular group. Finally managers must be willing to change the
organization if necessary.

Sensitivity Training
We want to be able to communicate effectively with members of our organization, with our clients,
with our customers, with members of the community, so that everything is going smoothly. It is
the ability to respond appropriately to different cultural or generational contexts in the workplace.
Following are the main points:
 Acknowledge and accept differences
 Seek to understand
 Communicate clearly
It’s alright that we are not same, so let’s just learn to deal with the fact that we are not the same
and figure out the best way to communicate with one another understanding that we are not same.
We need to understand how we are different. We may interpret something that somebody does as
being disrespectful to us, when from their perspective, that might just be how they communicate.
They may be actually being respectful to you, but because you come from two different culture,
you see the world differently, the way you show respect might be different. And so if we just
understand the fact that we are different and we approach things differently. It may help us to
improve our communication style.

Conclusion
A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse work teams
bring high value to organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit the workplace by
creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits
associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and
challenges. Management tools and the diverse workforce should be used to educate almost
everyone about diversity and its issues including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made
up of diverse cultures. So, organizations need to learn how to adapt to be successful.

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