Introduction
Current environment of diversity
Over recent years, diversity in the workplace has become one of the major standards for American company. Boston Bank is now believed to be a model of best practices: this company has implemented several program to promote cultural, racial and ethic diversity. Its experience indicates that this policy helps to decrease turnover, improves the motivation of the employees and contributes to teambuilding. Therefore, the investment is diversity is well justified (Arthur, 2001, p 12).
Now, the management of Boston Bank makes everything possible to make every worker feel that he or she is valued. They have successfully ensured that no is excluded from the work environment due to cultural, religious, or ethnic biases. There main achievement is that they give virtually no leeway for discrimination, as not every manager is held accountable. Most importantly, his job security can be imperiled if he fails to promote diversity in the department (Arthur, 2001, p 12). To some extent, this is one of the reasons why this organization has increased its market share and boosted performance.
Recruitment challenges
In part, some of the recruitment challenges, faced by Boston Bank, can explain this interest in diversity issues. As any effective organization, it seeks to find the best candidate for the job. In order to do it, they must eliminate prejudice towards the representatives of minority or rather disadvantaged groups like African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and women. They must eradicate every form of discrimination, for instance, glass ceiling1 (Arthur, 2006). Failure to do it leads to the loss of a good candidate and most importantly tarnished reputation.
The most effective program
Boston Bank has launched three programs to promote diversity, in particular: 1) investing in leadership and education; 2) listening to employees, and 3) holding managers accountable (Arthur, 2001). The last aspect seems to be the most important because a person is concerned with his or her job security, will definitely make everything possible to promote diversity. It may be argued that this approach is predominantly based on compulsion rather than persuasion. Nonetheless, this effectively prevents executives from mistreating people, who belong to different cultural background. Perhaps, in the long term, there will be no necessity to coerce executives but currently this is the only solution.
The least effective program
Yet, one of the areas seems to be least effective and it is investing in leadership and education. The key objective of these courses is to teach senior managers to deal with diversity issues. It seems that an educated person understands the importance of diversity even without such extra training. The problem is that during such sessions, a person is rather unlikely to learn anything new. The only thing, which senior manager must really possess is the respect to another individual. If his/her parents as well as educators did not teach him that, other people would not help him especially at the stage when his/her character has been fully formed. Such corporate seminars only help them to sound more politically correct but they do not help them break stereotypes.
Conclusion
Still even despite this limitation Boston Bank, results are rightly considered exemplary. This organization has eloquently demonstrated that promotion of cultural diversity is not an obligation imposed from outside but a necessity. It plays a crucial role for the sustainability of the enterprise.
Reference List
Arthur D. 2001. The employee recruitment and retention handbook. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Arthur. D. (2006) Recruiting, interviewing, selecting & orienting new employees. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Walker J. (2008) Supervision in the Hospitality Industry: Leading Human Resources. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Footnotes
Discrimination against women in the workplace.