Abstract
Although multiculturalism and diversity are used interchangeably in the workplace, owing to their combined role in addressing employee-related issues, this paper confirms that indeed the two concepts are different. As revealed in this study, the observable lack of employees and employers’ awareness of the difference between the above concepts is attributable to the presence of few studies that have been published to address the possible distinguishing aspects. Also, this paper addresses the pros and cons of diversity in the workplace before presenting a detailed discussion of pertinent organizational practices such as employee recruitment, selection, retention, and pay.
The prevailing competitive business world has forced contemporary organizations to embrace multiculturalism and diversity during their employee recruitment and selection processes. This paper seeks to find out the difference between the two concepts. As it is found, while diversity revolves around distinctions notable among people regarding their ways of life, masculinity and femininity, sexuality, faith, or socioeconomic settings, multiculturalism is depicted as a wider concept, which appreciates that power in the community may be disproportionate, thanks to the above diversity elements. This study also reveals the advantages and disadvantages witnessed when dealing with a diverse workforce. Overall, diversity is viewed as advantageous because it boosts a company’s efficiency and competitive advantage. Besides, workplace practices such as recruitment, selection, pay, and employee retention are discussed in detail.
Multiculturalism and Diversity
According to Reddy and Gizachew (2014), multiculturalism and diversity form an innovative way of handling employees. However, although diversity implies the cultural pluralism in the workplace, multiculturalism is a broader expression of the process of dealing with diversity in organizations. According to the authors, this concept entails managing workers in a “total quality manner” (Reddy & Gizachew, 2014, p. 66). In this case, it is crucial to view multiculturalism as an overall framework consisting of values and employees’ manner of conduct acknowledging and appreciating the existence of diverse teams in administrative centers.
On the other hand, while multiculturalism focuses of the entire process of dealing with a diverse workplace, diversity emphasizes the incorporation of a range of workers who demonstrate some distinguishing features regarding their ethnicity, cultural orientation, and expertise with the view of tapping into their combined differences to enhance an organization’s productivity. The study by Reddy and Gizachew (2014) introduces an interesting evolving aspect of diversity that is not observable under multiculturalism. Specifically, the last few decades viewed diversity as a mere concept that entailed one’s sexual inclination and race. However, contemporary societies and work settings regard it as an evolved and multifaceted notion that captures workers’ “age, tenure in an organization, educational background, sexual orientation or preference, physical abilities or qualities, and social status” (Reddy & Gizachew, 2014, p. 67). Burroughs (2018) presents additional elements that constitute diversity in today’s business world. According to the author, diversity has transformed to include people’s opinions, the manner of delivering speeches, and even individuality. As shown in Figure 1 below, it is arguable that the interior circle may have been partitioned into a specific number of segments symbolically to imply that multiculturalism does not change, as opposed to diversity whose outer portion is left undivided to indicate its capacity to transform to suit the prevailing societal or job market demands.
The study by Alca´zar, Ferna´ndez, and Gardey (2013) introduces another aspect whereby many administrative centers have embarked on emphasizing workforce diversity or pluralism to the extent of HR teams developing strategic models to address the issue. Alca´zar et al. (2013) suggest the need for a strategic human resource management approach that acknowledges the existence of a diverse and multicultural workforce. From this framework, it is possible to draw another difference between diversity and multiculturalism. For instance, according to Alca´zar et al. (2013), diversity implies the acceptance of other disparate cultures thriving within a bigger realm of civilization, although it denies the society the power to welcome or endorse such new ways of doing things. Contrary to what is observed in a multicultural setting, fresh customs are not only encouraged but also well supported as part of elements that depict the significance of people’s lives. Although diversity is highly encouraged in the workplace, especially during recruitment and selection processes, it is crucial to point out that it has its pros and cons.
Pros and Cons of Diversity
Pros
According to Vardarlıera, Vuralb, and Birgünc (2014), diversity is among the most sought-after elements during employee recruitment processes. As a result, organizations’ human resource teams specify various traits that potential candidates should possess, owing to the unique contribution anticipated once they succeed during the selection procedure. The study by Reddy and Gizachew (2014) reveals that embracing diversity in the workplace paves the way for organizations to enhance their problem-solving processes because every issue that arises is tackled promptly, thanks to employees who are well equipped with diverse skills. For instance, an organization in the marketing sector may develop technical hitches with its Internet connectivity. Here, despite the majority of employees having a marketing background, it may benefit from its pool through the input of a worker with extra expertise in the IT field. In other words, diversity helps organizations to benefit from the input of their pool of employees when trying to establish a solution for a particular problem.
According to McKibbon (2016), diversity enhances companies’ competitive advantage. Hence, businesses that wish to stand the wave of competition may have no alternative other than incorporating diverse employees into their operations. According to this author, embracing gender diversity guarantees not only innovation and output but also better organizational performance (McKibbon, 2016). In particular, the study confirms that indeed “a balance in gender not only results in happier and more productive employees but also could increase revenue by 41%” (McKibbon, 2016, p. 7). From this finding, since productivity has a bearing on a company’s public image, it suffices to conclude that diversity drives businesses’ competitive advantage. Similarly, in a recent article by Burroughs (2018), diversity is presented as a tool that culturally diverse organizations deploy to stand a more than 35% chance of recording income that is more than what is attained on average in their corresponding sectors.
Cons
However, despite the benefits described above, it is imperative to note that creating an environment, which can accommodate all diverse workers, enhance their communication, and/or allow the free sharing of ideas among employees or between workers and their employers may be a challenge because of the discomfort or tension that arises from the prevailing differences. In this case, employees operate with the fear that their organization is secretly planning to phase out a section of workers. The lack of commitment by employees may be manifested through reduced organizational productivity or increased cases of employee-employee or employee-employer conflicts. This situation calls for the introduction of diversity management strategies to make employees realize that their company is not after intimidating them but seeking to enhance productivity. Hence, according to Alca´zar et al. (2013), dealing with diverse human resources in a company may challenge the HR department, especially by requiring it to continuously develop mechanisms for addressing employees’ diversity issues.
According to Reddy and Gizachew (2014), dealing with workers who find it hard to interact with one another or their employers because of diversity-related reasons can ruin an organization’s performance and, consequently, efficiency. Here, Reddy and Gizachew (2014) suggest a strategy that requires affected companies to invest some funds in organizing seminars “on prejudice or cultural awareness, cross-cultural communication, and conflict resolution” (p. 68). Otherwise, such organizations risk losing employees, a situation that may be costly since they would further be required to incur extra costs recruiting, selecting, retaining, and enhancing the pay for the remaining workers. This observation opens the room for a discussion of recruitment, selection, retention, and may entail. It is crucial to note that the issue of diversity is solely dependent on whether a company upholds inclusivity in its employee recruitment and selection processes. In other words, the subject of diversity may not be exhaustive without discussing the above four aspects.
Recruitment
The first step that an organization in need of workers undertakes involves communicating to the public its desire to fill various vacant positions. This process is referred to as recruitment or hiring whereby companies can use various platforms such as websites or adverts to inform potential employees to apply for specific posts. As Vardarlıera et al. (2014) assert, the goal of the recruitment drive is to enhance a company’s sustainability in its line of operation. In other words, it is possible to utilize a recruitment mechanism that is only noticeable by a limited number of candidates, hence compromising the issue of diversity. According to Baum and Kabst (2014), the choice of the method to use between recruitment websites and hard-copy adverts depends on the level of effectiveness that an organization wishes to attain during the hiring process. Diversity-sensitive organizations deploy a combination of recruitment websites and printed adverts. As shown in Figure 2 below, while the former method of using the Internet has the potential of reaching an unlimited number of candidates from everywhere around the globe, hard-copy media may be rich in images of the potential candidate’s credentials, application details, and the organization’s background among others.
The overall hiring procedure is meant to look for capable candidates who are encouraged to apply for specified positions. The recruitment opportunity is only left open for a particular timeframe after which it is closed to pave the way for the selection process.
Selection
The selection process entails relying on the pool of candidates who showed their interest in a particular position during the recruitment phase. Here, an organization crosschecks the credentials of such potential candidates in line with its key requirements, including the unrelenting need for diversity in the workplace. The selection procedure commences by screening all candidates who applied for the specified job against the laid-down criterion to gauge those who meet or fail to attain the set threshold (Bhalla & Giri, 2014). Since the list of applicants is diverse in terms of religion, gender, ethnicity, and even sexuality among other elements, it is imperative to note that hiring organizations have the chance to select individuals in a non-discriminatory manner. Arguably, this awareness may have informed the study by Chao, Hsu, Hung, Lin, and Liou (2015) who recommend the adoption of total quality management (TQM) during the selection procedure because this approach paves the way for the absorption of not only proficient but also diverse workers whose differences may be tapped to boost a company’s competitive edge. Hence, the selection process is very crucial because it allows an organization to choose the best employees in line with its agenda.
Retention
Once successful candidates are allowed to join a particular company, they become assets that need to be well supported to avoid issues of turnover (Bhalla & Giri, 2014). This situation introduces the concept of employee retention where organizations endeavor to establish mechanisms that encourage workers to continue serving, instead of moving out to join other corporations. The contemporary working environment has been marked by the need to incorporate and retain employees from various cultural backgrounds or who have different sets of skills. The overall goal of adopting this strategy is to get exemplary organizational results, thanks to the diverse input expected from such workers. In other words, the need for enhancing productivity in the workplace may not be fulfilled if employers fail to acknowledge the role of retention in influencing organizational outcomes. The study by Covella, McCarthy, Kaifi, and Cocoran (2017) introduces a crucial aspect that can effectively facilitate employee retention in the workplace. According to the authors, organizational leaders play a key role in influencing employees’ decisions to remain loyal to a company. Specifically, Covella et al. (2017) mention the contribution of the social exchange theory (SET) in enhancing the level of interaction between the lead unit and workers. In other words, retaining employees is dependent on the type of leadership an organization embraces.
Pay
Diversity in the workplace implies the presence of competitive skills that an organization may not risk losing. Retaining such proficient workers comes with some cost implications for the company. According to Covella et al. (2017), it goes hand in hand with better remuneration packages, financial investments in continuous training and retraining workshops, and other initiatives geared towards creating awareness among employees that diversity results in mutual benefits for both workers and the company. This claim is founded on the understanding that employees need to feel appreciated and supported for them to demonstrate maximum devotion to the workplace agenda. Such a commitment leads to exemplary organizational performance. Reddy and Gizachew (2014) support this claim by revealing how companies that embrace the idea of reasonable pay not only recognize the positive contribution of workers’ socio-cultural disparities but also create an environment that favors innovation from the diverse pool of individuals.
Conclusion
Based on the expositions made in the paper, while multiculturalism promotes the co-existence of all unique cultures, a diverse workplace setting only welcomes traits that can be maximized to contribute to the betterment of the prevailing job environment in line with the set goals, objectives, and the anticipated organizational productivity level. This paper has confirmed that indeed diversity has its pros and cons. Some of the pros include enhancing a company’s competitive advantage and tapping from the diverse contribution during problem-solving sessions. However, some cons have been identified, including the existence of tension among employees and the cost implication linked to managing a diverse workforce. Other issues discussed in details entail recruitment, selection, retention, and pay. This paper has presented these elements as crucial, especially for diversity-sensitive organizations that wish to continue benefiting from the unique traits possessed by different employees.
References
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