It is imperative to assert that individuals vary in numerous aspects. Therefore, it is a vital consideration in workplace especially in organizations where diversity is unavoidable. Such diversities encompass gender, racial background, as well as religion. Diversity management practices (DMP) encompass formal efforts developed and applied by an organization to administer variety effectively among its stakeholders.
The kind of diversity in question can be disadvantageous to an organization unless managed. Its containment in an organization is achievable through efficient HRM. International firms, which hire labor force globally, are quite vulnerable to racial diversity, which can subsequently culminate to an ethnic discrimination.
With good and elaborated governance, organizational efforts to sustain diversity can curb the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination amongst employees for better commitment, together with performance (Shen, Chanda, D’Netto & Monga, 2009).
Evidence indicates that prejudice in the workplace exists, and if not well managed, the results can be destructive to the organization’s prosperity. Organizations can draft and implement diversity management practices successfully via utilization of many diversified strategies.
New Zealand among other countries has a larger populace of international immigrants with varied cultural roots. In this country, multiculturalism has demonstrated the most crucial aspect of diversity and this elicits little or no assumption in major workstations.
The strategies in place have to set legal practices, which upon implementation can effectively govern the ultimate diversity. A varied workforce encompasses a multitude of viewpoints, thoughts, ethics, perceptions, and culture.
Quick internationalization as well as globalization has enhanced the worth of workforce diversity. A cross-cultural and multicultural labor force is a widespread strand in organizations and corporations worldwide.
The benefits of diversity cannot be a subject of assumption. This is evident by the research indications that diversity advances the excellence of management’s decisions, and grants innovative thoughts as well as superior resolutions to organizational tribulations.
Pragmatic evidence indicates that firms having valuable diversity administration are prone to enjoying numerous benefits. Plentiful Human Resource diversity efforts undergo embracement by many organizations globally (Triana, Garcia, & Colella, 2010).
In the arenas of change, organizations can develop and implement DMP in various ways. This is a subject to dissimilar perceptions mounted on qualities of HRM and their subsequent duties. Among the numerous ideal practices, include fair remuneration to the employs without any discrimination, an elaborated selection and staffing, complete training and nurturing of the prospective employees. Others encompass equality, flexible regulations, staff support, and performance administration, among others (Shen et al., 2009).
As for selection and staffing of the employs, several policies that embrace diversity are recommendable. Employs are the true depiction of an organizations culture, and if their recruitment considers no diversity principles, then the ultimate desires will never materialize.
Every prospective employee requires an equal opportunity to enter an organization. This recruitment strategy should not be limited to racial backgrounds, religion beliefs, gender discrimination, and many other vices that would deter the embracement of diversity (Alexandra-Joelle, 2010). The step is paramount since it is the fundamental stepping-stone towards the achievement of the desired goals. Most triumphant organizations in New Zealand have clinched this particular strategy.
For the organization to mirror the diverse global market offered by the current world, recruitment of female staff and other employs from minority groups is similarly vital. This has proved to be essential for the capturing of virgin market segments and niches. Most customers are sensitive to the organization structure and can readily notice any element of discrimination by the organization. The impacts of this phenomenon cannot be gratifying.
The resourcefulness and innovations that are achievable when diversity takes course are beyond measure. The firm should provide an ambient environment where spotted creativity can be natured and utilized for the future developments.
Organizations are ensuring that employment policies as well as practices offer developmental chances, career forecasting, decline of work versus family conflicts, and mentoring for underprivileged groups. All these possess the rationale of establishing the demanded diversity.
Substantial research and speculations have demonstrated that it is undemanding to develop effective job relationships in harmonized workplaces compared to diverse workplaces (Shen et al., 2009). For this reason, it is imperative to integrate the meaning of diversity management practices, those practices intended to create an excellent working rapport among a diverse realm of stakeholders. Additionally, the business take for diversity should be the foremost catalyst for its achievement.
Concurrently, another way of developing and enacting diversity practices is equality legislation. An organization can achieve this virtue by considering equality. It will have to follow the legislation and restrictions to the latter.
By doing this, the elements of gender balance, racial lines, and ethnic considerations will track to the positive. Additionally, the benefits to the marginalized groups will by no means cease. The legislation enactment is either by the organization itself or by the territorial government.
Different organizations possess different equality policies for valuable DMP. Preceding research illustrates that government regulation as well as legislation are key pressures fueling the implementation of diversity management practices (DMP). Government’s affirmative action and employment equity strategies result in the development of recruitment and screening efforts intended to diversify the employment base (Yang, 2011).
The provision of empowerment by the government to employees and the formalization of recruitment systems to lessen discrimination are also important in compensation, promotions, and career advancement. However, despite several years of equality legislation and affirmed assurance to equal opportunities, there still survives a systematic discrimination in the staffing and selection procedure in some organizations, which are rigid to the inevitable changes posed by the dynamic global market.
Although diversity supervision by individual managers is paramount especially if its success is essential, its application from the grassroots levels up to the top management can produce even better results. Embracing diversity on leadership levels can act as replicas for the entire management and their subjects.
Another avenue in the promotion of diversity is the utilization of the opportunities created by education and development organized by the management for the employs. Most organizational managements have to divert their attention to this important aspect of company development in order to anticipate success.
Evasion of skilled labor monopolization by a given class of employers is vital since the vice is not only discriminative but also deters the rest of the organization’s staff from venturing in to others sectors and positions from which they can perform even better (Shen et al., 2009).
Applying the affirmative action system might equally add value to the diversification efforts in an organization. Intermixing and intensive changing of managers from one field to another is crucial if all the efforts put for the achievement are to be fruitful. An organization should not discriminate against other races when considering potential employs for the managerial post. Gender equality is of no exception. Consideration for a post should be transparent and only the eligible candidates should grab the post in question.
The training of employs for the acquisition of a given specific skills should not target only a given group of people. It should apply beyond any discrimination boundaries be it ethnical, gender, or race. This trend demonstrates a positive approach to the evasion of diversity inhibitors.
Recruits should enjoy opportunities in relation to their capabilities but not their color. This proves to be one of the best and successful means towards the achievement of a long-term diversity in an organization. The office of the human resource manager (HRM) is the key root to this achievement.
When the office is scheduling for an organized training and the development of its staff, it should consider the diversity policy. Well-set protocols can help in eliminating the real time confusion during the selection procedures. It is logical that not everybody in organization can rise to the top most posts at a given time, but it is vital to grant everybody the opportunity to grow and develop to other different level they desire (Shen et al., 2009).
Still in the training arena, some organized training programs are never conducive to both women and the minority groups hence eliciting little or none of their participation. This deters their career advancement and consequently denying them the opportunities to grow to other higher posts.
It is recommendable that the HR should organize a training program that will be able to induce the women participation and hence granting them equal opportunities to strive for the designated posts as their fellows (Yang, 2011). Concurrently, wide inclusion of women in the informal networks is crucial so that they also experience less difficulty in the development of better mentoring relationships.
The majority of diversity training agenda reinforce norms, ethics, and perceptions of the dominant organizational traditions. Despite all this benefits and impacts elicited by training as well as development in the diversity arena, employees in some organizations still enjoy minor ranks and their promotion for other posts are limited.
Concurrently, ethnic minority staffs never get permission to express their traditions and religions in the work place openly. Besides, the context of some diversity training programs, are irrelevant from the ongoing work context (Dobbin, Kalev, & Kelly, 2007).
This hardens everything for the trainees to demonstrate behaviors analogous to those cultured in training. These kinds of approach are detrimental to the diversity policy. The entire picture created above is entirely the negative predicaments achieved through discrimination whose meaning in this context is denying certain people equality of treatment based on their faction membership.
Another way through which organizations can develop and implement DMP is by applying performance assessment phenomenon. The model of DMP, also called formalized practices drafted and executed by organizations to manage diversity effectively, is multifaceted especially to the resource managers (Buyl, Boone, Hendriks & Matthyssens, 2011)
. This is evident when it comes to this line of embracing diversity. The issue of who has done what, where, and how is not simply lucid especially in a larger population. Even if the organization intends to offer some prizes, credits may land on those who do not deserve them.
This can be due to discrimination where those who deserve credits meet less recognition simply due to their racial, religion, or ethnic background. Rank and roles played in the firm may not be an exception. Choosing and presenting awards can be daunting if the set principles are not in place.
Ratings on performance should be fair and should not depict any element of discrimination whatsoever to uphold the virtues of diversity. The issue of female gender being under push for lower ratings is of no good. Some companies totally ignore culturally diverse workers in their performance appraisal lists. HR’s results usually correlate to the demographic trends among the senior and junior employees in terms of age, race, and gender.
Additionally, on pay, the kind of remuneration an employ earns determines his/her satisfaction with the job in question. The inequality in the remuneration rate can be detrimental if it elicits employee’s demoralization. Pay is one of the paramount HRM’s diversity challenges.
Most organizations are embracing diversity by offering reasonable compensation plan from which they hardly exhibit inequality. Inequality in this parameter is evident when women get less pay compared to their fellow men in the same job caliber. Diversity is against this and advocates for nothing less than equality.
The occurrence of wage and salary discrimination among several employers is unnecessary for the realization of the full diversity by an organization. The rewards in appreciation of the manager’s perfect work need some correlation with the achievements gathered from the diversity efforts. Only those managers and employs who have dearly embraced diversity in their respective firms are bound to recognition. This is in line with the kind of virtues diversity brings to an organization (Mkono, 2010).
Importantly, the organizations should struggle to value their employs at all cost. This is another way of diversity implementation. When employees deem the organization is making an effort to value the entire workforce, they are more probable to sense a touching connection with their bosses.
This can then facilitate the elimination of negative mind-sets associated with specific discriminatory episodes from certain individuals at work, thus thwarting the unenthusiastic reactions toward the executor of the discrimination from generalizing to the entire society (Boyer, Brunner, Charles & Coleman, 2006).
However, when organizational efforts to support diversity are not evident, negative reactions resulting from discriminatory incidents can generalize to influence sentimental commitment toward the organization as a whole. Consequently, based on theory and related experiential facts, employees are more happy and quiet productive in the instances where they feel to be of some value to the employer.
The human resource strategy should involve the instances where the morale of the entire workforce becomes one of the fore front considerations. Concurrently, the Perceived organizational attempts to bear diversity should have clear indications. This avoids the misunderstandings that might arise among the employees on the take of their respective organization towards them. The practices deliberated to augment the validity of HR resolutions constitute an imperative foundation of efficacy in diversity administration.
The espousal of diversity management performances is also achievable through normative and mimetic pressures. These refer to the execution of norms and imitation of other prospective diversity cultures from other organizations respectively.
Studies suggest that the uniformity in the managers’ educational and professional course work contribute greatly to the organizational isomorphism, or similarity in business models, structures, and practices. Exploratory approach to the distinctiveness of diversity managers as well as diversity-related professional relations can enhance understanding of the growth of norms for diversity management.
Concurrently, normative pressures sway the enactment of diversity management practices. Equally, the diversity management arena has dedicated less research to the bang of mimetic influences on organizations (Grant, 2007). In consideration of the institutional theory, a firm may tend to imitate its competitors as a means to diminish uncertainty.
Since the ultimate results of diversity are often ambiguous, managers design social comparisons to lessen uncertainties. It is always nice to elucidate how competitors’ espousal of diversity management practices, manipulates main organizations’ approval of similar practices.
Such research can enhance understanding of the institutional past history of diversity management ideologies. Another way to elucidate background of diversity management practices is to divide early adopters and later adopters and consequently observe their correspondences and disparities.
The HRM should also consider dynamism of the shifting global market and demands for hiring of the desirable workforce. New diversity management practices emerge periodically to address new requirements and concerns in an organization.
This is illustratable when an organization amends its recruitment practices in reaction to the current emerging trends in the demographic conformation of the labor force. Revolutions in DMP transform the organization’s approach of magnetizing and utilizing its human resources thus alters the nature and features of its resource base (Labelle, & Francoeur, 2010). Consequently, investigations on diversity management provide opportunities to discover the potentials of the business to retain its prosperity and recognition in the arenas of transparency and lack of discrimination. Most New Zealand organizations have utilized this aspect to achieve their current prosperity.
The idea of DMP, which in this context refers to the set of formalized practices structured and implemented by an organization to administer diversity effectively, is vital for any globally operating organization.
This formalized diversity management phenomenon is crucial for a couple of reasons. The most important of all is that the formalized practices are significantly everlasting. This is important when compared with the informal ones, which are less rooted on any culture.
Second, formalized practices have the prospective to penetrate through the organization, unlike the informal efforts exerted by individual diversity champions, who may either drop the gusto they had before or quite the organization.
Third, the custom of tactical human resource management shows that formalized practices are observable, and consequently compared between organizations. As the workers experience negative impacts at work including racial discrimination, they are prone to correlating their work with negative sentiments and elicit less commitment to their employer.
In the parameters of elucidating the ideologies of DMP, there is a need to include efforts that the organization requires to handle diversity among its stakeholders. Management practices that are crucial for easy connection with the varied clusters of clients, society, workers, and regulators are critical for the accomplishment of social and normative aspects of diversity.
Most organizations have embraced the enactment of diversity through regulations in the staffing of employees, and indiscrimination training to develop their workers uniformly. Additionally, equality, and equivalent pay are no exception.
At tactical level, HR can promote diversity through culture, vision, mission, business plans, formalized policies, values, and appraisal. At tactical level, HR can utilize recruitment, instruction, and fair remuneration. Finally, operational level demands that the HR considers educating employees, networking, flexible regulations, and provision of support to its stakeholders. Organizations can augment diversity by extending its embracement past human resources management level.
References
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