Essay About Practices Of Diversity And Critical Issues

Diversity Management
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Abstract
Although the advantage of managing diversity has been acknowledged by a number of
researches and most managers in organizations, the practices of diversity used to be ignored
or be inadequate. In Australia, the concepts of managing diversity have been introduced for
more than two decades, whereas the overall performance is just about “mediocre”. This paper
attempted to research the challenges accompanied by the introduction of diversity programs
and to recommend solutions of those problems. The findings indicated that resistance both
from majority and minority, lack of commitment from senior management, immaturity of
diversity management application and lack of evaluation of diversity programs as the main
challenges accompanied by managing diversity. In addition, the recommendations were full
participation of all parties in organizations, finding indirect benefits of diversity programs
which may be critical to certain business and seeing diversity program as the advantages
which may benefit organizations in the long term.
Introduction
Diversity management has become one of the primary challenges for HRM as organizations
become diversity worldwide. (Benshchop, 2001: 1166; DNetto & Sohal, 1999: 530)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau project, 40% of U.S. residents will be members of
racial or ethic minority groups in 2030, while the percentage of minority groups is 28% in
1999. (Dansky et. al., 2003 : 243) Other research which conducted by Opportunity Now
stated that only 20% of U.K. workforce will be white, male, able-bodied and under 45 years
old by the year 2010. (Willmott, 2003: 2) Likewise, with the changes of economic condition,
social and legal environment, diversity also becomes one of critical issues and resources that
are needed to be managed in Australian organizations. (DNetto & Sohal, 1999: 530; Lewis,
2000: 5; Teicher et al., 2002: 320) A forecast predicted that 20% to 25% of Australian people
will be of Asian origin by the year 2030. (DNetto & Sohal, 1999:530 sited in Nankervis et
al., 1999) Diversity workforce is generally believed as one of the critical vehicles which
bring corporations competitive advantage. A survey named Impact of Diversity Initiatives on
the Bottom Line in 2001 claimed that 79% of HRM experts at Fortune 1,000 companies in
U.S. believed that diversity improved corporate culture, 77% for employee recruitment and
52% for client relations. (Campbell, 2003: 152) With the confidence of diversity which can
benefit enterprises, a number of companies have engaged in managing diversity in Australia
for many years. At Westpac, for example, a diversity program which focused on the
advancement of female employees had been successfully implemented in 1990s. Other
example was Hewlett-Packard, the company which stated diversity, work/life balance and
development are their pillars of HRM policy. Ford Australia, similarly, used Natural Work
Groups which represented their ethnically-diverse workforce. (Barrile, 2003: 6) However,
two researchers argued that the overall performance of managing diversity is just about
“mediocre” in Australia. (DNetto & Sohal, 1999: 541; DNetto & Sohal, 1999: 530 sited in
Dagher et al., 1998) In other words, numerous challenges, difficulties and failures are still
taken place within the diversity programs in Australian organizations currently. This essay
will attempt to research on what kinds of challenges will accompany with the introduction of
a diversity program in organizations and particularly in the context of Australia. Then,
certain solutions will be recommended in order to overcome those challenges which are
justified in this paper.
This essay will highline the challenges which followed by diversity practices in organizations
and the challenges under the Australian context meanwhile. Firstly, in the session of
Concepts of Diversity Management, an integrated explanation of diversity management will
be presented by examining the definitions of diversity and diversity management, followed
by the framework of diversity management. After that, the benefits of introducing diversity
initiative to organizations will be justified by this paper. Secondly, this paper will examine
the social trends which are related to managing diversity in Australia. Finally, the challenges
and recommendations will be presented in the final session.
Definitions of Diversity Management
Diversity management assumes that organization aims for effectiveness, productivity and
competitive advantage through managing diversity. (DNetto & Sohal, 1999:531) Unlike the
notion of traditional HRM, diversity management acknowledges the differences between
employees rather than seeing people as a generic category (Benshchop, 2001: 1167)
Diversity is a combination of people