Critical appraisal of the competing drivers of diversity into organizational strategy and policy
The Abu Dhabi Health Service Company plays a very critical role in ensuring that every citizen of this great country has access to affordable Medicare through a mandatory health insurance policy. The firm employs numerous people to work in various departments as it seeks to achieve success in making medical products accessible to all. The firm has been experiencing a trend where diversity is increasingly becoming common. The United Arab Emirates, especially the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has experienced an influx of immigrants coming from all over the world for various reasons. The trend has seen cases where this firm employs people from different cultural and social backgrounds. According to a report by Unceta and Medrano (2010), SEHA is one of the firms in the Middle East that have been keen on hiring highly skilled employees to help improve their service delivery. The emphasis that was previously laid on citizens of the country has been relaxed as the firm tries to improve its efficiency. This has increased the diversity of its workforce.
Managing diversity in the workplace is one of the most challenging tasks. The management of SEHA has to ensure that it understands its employees and provides a perfect environment where they can undertake their duties without feeling intimidated. According to Vedder (2006), when managing employees from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, there are a number of factors that should be considered. For instance, religious beliefs and practices cannot be ignored by the management. Muslims always consider Fridays as a holy day meant for prayers. As such, the management will need to ensure that they take this day off work to go and pray. Among the Christians, the official day of prayer is always on Sunday. They can afford to work on any other day of the week, but they have to be given a day-off every Sunday so that they can go to church. Hindus and Buddhists also have their special days of prayer. To some managers, this may be an insignificant issue that can easily be ignored. Given that this country is predominantly Islamic, everyone can be given a day-off on Fridays. However, what such a manager will be ignoring is the fact that some of the employees highly cherish their day of prayer. They may agree to follow the set guidelines, but this may affect their morale. They will consider the management autocratic and unconcerned about their religious needs.
It is clear that managing competing drivers of diversity may be challenging. However, they have to be incorporated into organizational strategy and policy. The management can come up with a flexible strategy that allows the employees to choose any day of the week when they feel they have to spend the whole day away from their normal duties. This will be a sign that the firm appreciates the diversity that exists at the firm and that it is keen on protecting the interests of all its employees (Wilson, 2007). This policy will be very helpful to this firm economically because it will remain operational throughout the week. Another critical issue will be the way male and female employees interact while they are in the workplace. There are strict Islamic codes of conduct that define how men and women who are married should interact and dress. The management will need to come up with a policy that will be a compromise. Employees from other religious practices should not consider the policy too prohibitive to be bearable. On the other hand, the Islamic community, including clients who are served on a daily basis by these employees, should not consider the policy too liberal. Having a compromise between these two extremes will help in creating a workplace that is accommodating to all.
Analysis of equality and diversity strategies to develop an inclusive culture
According to Godwin and Kemerer (2002), issues of equality always arise in the workplace. Sometimes a section of the employees may feel that they are more qualified to get special treatment than others either because of their nationality, race, religion, or any other demographical factors. It is the responsibility of the management to create an organizational culture where all the employees feel that they are equal. The management will have to develop an inclusive culture where demographical factors are not considered as classes of identification. On the contrary, diversity should be used as a strength in this firm. For instance, by allowing employees to choose a day within the week that they will not come to work, it is an indication that the firm respects diversity in religion.
The inclusive culture will also promote teamwork within the firm. SEHA can be more efficient in delivering its duties if its employees work as a team. Segregation and discrimination only promote a poor work culture where employees cannot address different tasks as a unit (Solomon, Levine-Rasky, & Singer, 2003). This means that whenever they are faced with circumstances where they have to work together, then their hatred will cloud their judgment and ability to deliver quality services to the clients. The culture of inclusivity and equality will make the employees appreciate their diverse backgrounds and understand that this cannot be changed. They must learn to work as a team at all times. This will create a positive workplace environment. The management will also find it easy to coordinate these employees when there is this cohesion.
Promotion is one of the ways that the management is supposed to use to show equality and the culture of inclusiveness. The majority should not be promoted just to please them and make them more committed to the firm. On the same note, the minority should not be promoted just to show them that the management is concerned about them. This may create hatred among the employees. All promotions should be based on merit. The management should develop a peer-review system where employees also participate in reviewing the performance of their colleagues at work before they can be promoted. This will promote fairness at this firm.
Models of diversity management
Various models can be used to manage diversity at SEHE. The model can be leadership-based or employee-based. The leaders of this firm will need to embrace the Transformational Leadership Model to promote the new culture of inclusivity. They should inspire the employees and motivate them towards embracing a new thought towards the issue of diversity. This model enhances the promotion of new thinking and creativity by challenging old operating methods. The old practices where religion was considered a major factor that defined the social class of the employees at this firm should be challenged by the leaders. They should make the employees realize that they have more to lose when they fight or when they consider each other to belong to different social classes. They should be charismatic enough to achieve this. They must demonstrate to the employees that, indeed, the culture of inclusiveness will help take this firm to the next level. This way, employees will appreciate the need to embrace one another irrespective of their cultural differences.
On the part of the employees, the firm should introduce the development of diversity competencies programs. This program will involve a critical analysis of the existing culture among the employees with the view of using them to transform the operations of the firm. The employees themselves will be expected to integrate and identify the strengths of the cultural practices of their fellow employees. They should then come up with ways through which the strengths can be tapped in order to help address various weaknesses of the firm. For instance, it is a common belief that the Germans are always thorough when it comes to the issue of quality. Wheeler (2004) confirms that Germans indeed have unique work ethics that are not common in other parts of the world. This quality should then be translated into an actual practice that can be emulated by other members of this organization. The concept should be fun, and everyone is expected to enjoy it. This way, diversity at this firm will be used to promote the efficiency of the workforce.
References
Godwin, R. K., & Kemerer, F. R. (2002). School choice tradeoffs: Liberty, equity, and diversity. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Solomon, R. P., Levine-Rasky, C., & Singer, J. (2003). Teaching for equity and diversity: Research to practice. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Unceta, A., & Medrano, C. (2010). Equality, equity, and diversity: Educational solutions in the Basque Country. Reno: Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada.
Vedder, G. (2006). Managing equity and diversity at universities. München: Hampp.
Wheeler, M. B. (2004). Unfinished business: Race, equity, and diversity in library and information science education. Lanham : Scarecrow press.
Wilson, T. (2007). Diversity at work: The business case for equity. Toronto: Wiley.