A Strategy for Managing Diversity in My Organization
For the last few years, I have been working for the Bank of America. The bank began its business in the mid 20th century (Marcus, 2009). Currently, the organization has more than 300 branches in the US and 8 branches abroad. Being one of the largest banks in the world, the Bank of America is said to be among the most diverse global companies. Recent researches indicate that more than 45% of its management members are women. Some researches indicate that more than 40% of the members are from minority groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, men from the majority groups in the US-dominated the organization’s management.
Diversity in the Bank of America is exhibited through the employees’ dissimilarities and similarities. This implies that diversity is not only a race, ethnic, or gender, issue, but comprises of other complicated issues that bring out the differences of the employees. Based on Thomas Roosevelt’s definition, in Bank of America, we have a finite number of diversity mixtures (Thomas, 2006). In the organization, we have diverse mixtures based on racial, ethnic, gender, profession, age, and religion. Our workforce compromises of individuals from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. We have employees of Caucasian, African American, Asian, and Hispanic backgrounds. All these individuals come from different cultural and religious backgrounds. These individuals come from various religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Notably, the employees have diverse ages and professions.
The Bank of America’s diverse workforce has been able to surpass the company’s expectations increasing productivity. Despite these successes, our management has had to deal with numerous issues associated with the number of diversity mixtures. These challenges are racial, ethnic, gender, religious, profession, and age difference hostilities.
Appropriate options for dealing with the above diversity tensions
Roosevelt asserts that there are specific steps for tackling these diversity tensions. In the first step, Roosevelt urges managers to recognize diversity mixtures in their organizations. In doing so, managers should be able to identify themselves with various diversity mixtures in the organizations. The managers assigning themselves parts of the responsibilities of the ongoing tensions will achieve this. In the next step, the managers should be able to scrutinize the mixtures and their associated tensions. Through this step, our managers will be able to widen their outlooks and establish the effects the mixtures and their related tensions have on their capabilities to satisfy the organization’s objectives. In the third step, our manager will be required to choose a suitable response. Through this step, our managers would be able to evaluate their alternatives. After these steps, our managers should be able to settle on one specific approach based on their findings and conclusions.
Based on the above specific diversity tensions unique to the Bank of America, our managers should select the following approaches. These approaches involve assimilating diversity, suppressing diversity, increasing diversity, building relationships, and fostering mutual adaptation. In our organization, there are workplace departments where diversity should be increased. For instance, the minority races are not appropriately represented at the executive level. This implies that there is a need to increase diversity at this level. Another level that needs an increase in diversity is the level where manual jobs are done. At this level, the minority races are heavily represented. I believe that there is no specific race suited for a particular job. In this regard, the management should be able to allocate jobs at these levels for all individuals regardless of their religious, racial, or gender backgrounds.
By assimilating language diversity, our managers should be able to insist that English, the official language, be spoken in the workplace. All other languages will be prohibited around the workplace. This will help in addressing issues related to language mixture. To eliminate issues related to gender mixture, religion mixture, and racial mixture, our managers should be able to suppress consciousness related to these diversity mixtures. For instance, individuals in the workplace should be able to perceive themselves as persons rather than as women and men. Similarly, they should be able to perceive themselves as workers of the common organization rather as being an Asian, Caucasian, African American or any other racial group. There should be a directive to prohibit workers from discussing issues concerned with their race, religion, or political affiliation in the workplace.
Through building relationships among the employees, our managers will enable the employees to understand and appreciate each other’s social, religious, or racial backgrounds. This can be achieved by offering the employees with regular seminars, workshops, and other social events. Through this, they will get to know one another better enhancing mutual respect. Lastly, our managers should foster mutual adaptation in the workplace to end issues related to religious mixtures. Through this initiative, every employee will be required to adjust his or her religious doctrines for the benefit of developing an appropriate work environment suitable for all religious groups.
The plan I would advocate for the organization to create meaningful diversity
For my organization to enhance a meaningful diversity, it should adopt an approach suggested by Roosevelt. This approach asserts that a meaningful diversity can be achieved if managers talk, think, and walk their talk. Concerning this, our managers should think critically to be able to manage a diverse workforce. By thinking, they would be able to come up with innovative ways of using the workforce diversity to the advantage of the organization and the employees. They should be able to think about how to position every employee to maximize their potential. For instance, African American salespersons should be sent on assignments in areas where the African American community is popular. Similarly, other salespersons from different races should be sent out to places they would be able to associate with the cultures in place. This will enhance their interactions with the members of the society improving on their work environment and increasing the much-needed returns.
By talking with the employees and other managers in different organizations, our managers can enhance our workforce diversity. They should be able to talk freely with the employees. Through this, they would be able to identify major diversity issues in the subordinate levels. By talking with other managers or mentors, they will be able to compare different approaches to enhancing diversity in the workplace.
To walk their talk, our managers should implement everything they utter. For instance, when they say diversity is a major factor in the success of our company, they should embrace diversity at the executive level. Both the minority and the majority group members should be represented equally at all organizational levels under the directive of our managers (Thomas, 2006).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be noted that diversity is a major factor behind the success of several multinational companies (Weeks, 1994). In the Bank of America, there are several diversity mixtures. These mixtures are based on race, age, religion, and profession. These diversity mixtures have fueled the success of our organization. Despite their importance, these mixtures have fueled animosity between employees from different backgrounds. Our managers should assimilate diversity, suppress diversity, increase diversity, build relationships, and foster mutual adaptation, to end the animosities resulting from workplace diversity.
References
Marcus, G. (2009). A new literary history of America. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Thomas, R. R. (2006). Building on the promise of diversity how we can move to the next level in our workplaces, our communities, and our society. New York: AMACOM/ American Management Association.
Weeks, D. (1994). The eight essential steps to conflict resolution: preserving relationships at work, at home, and in the community. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Perigee.