Benefits of Organizational Diversity
You are the consultant assigned to study the organizational environment in the Miami, Florida, and the Kansas City, Missouri, offices. Both are service call centers for Fig Technologies. The workforces have a large cross-section of locals from the area, university graduates from nearby institutions, and transfers from other offices within the organization. The offices are facing issues in several areas.
The two offices have a friendly rivalry with regard to professional sports and local college teams. In the Florida office, there have been concerns raised, including some complaints that the rivalry has gone to extremes.
Contingent software developers in both offices from Brazil and South Africa have been unable to get people excited about fútbol instead of football. A few individuals in the Kansas City office have begun hanging out together and talking in the break areas about their relationships with same-sex partners, multiple partners, and some encounters of homosexual and heterosexual relationships together. A petition is circulating around the Kansas City office about these types of discussions being banned.
You are being sent to assess the environment and provide a report of your findings. The report should be in three sections:
· Assessment of findings in Miami, FL;
· Assessment of findings in Kansas City, MO; and
· Recommendation for addressing these findings to the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) for review.
In your assessment of findings, be sure to evaluate how organizational cultures are perceived and how problem solving and creativity are promoted with organizational diversity. In your recommendations for the ELC, contrast the benefits and disadvantages of diversity, and establish the value of working through these issues to create a dynamic organizational culture. How will you channel this diversity and help create a positive atmosphere?
Support your recommendation through the use of at least two sources, one of which can be the textbook. Content should be three to four pages in length. Length does not include an assessment tool, if used, though it may be added as an addendum (recommended, not required). All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
Have some fun with the assignment. Use your creative thinking along with your critical thinking to include your perspective of the findings and how to address the issue.
Sample Paper
Assessment in Miami, FL
To start with, it is normal for employees to have a friendly rivalry in workplaces because everyone has a different personality, preference, cognitive style, education level, opinions, background, culture, race, age, an ethnic group just to mention a few. These are a variety of differences between people in a workplace or organization and are referred to as workplace diversity (Greenberg, 2009).
Diversity involves how people perceive themselves and others too and these perceptions are what affect their interactions. Now, a competition or rivalry can be healthy because it encourages individuals to excel in their work and it can even make an individual’s job more exciting. But sometimes, rivalries can get out of hand and cause turmoil in the place of work.
Based on the scenario presented, it is a fact that the two offices, Miami, FL and Kansas City, MO, have a friendly rivalry with regard to professional sports and local college teams and in the Miami, Florida office, there has been concerns raised, including some complaints that the rivalry has gone to extremes.
Sports rivalry happen in workplaces and even go beyond to cause harm and consequences. Rivalry in sports is an intense competition that mostly happens between athletic teams or athletes and the pressure is felt strongest by the sports fans. A rivalry that gets out of control can lead to fighting, hooliganism, rioting, end of a career or even fatal consequences.
Some rivalries get so bad that employees look for work elsewhere. Based on the scenario, it is a fact that the two offices hired employees from a large cross-section of locals from the area, university graduates from nearby institutions, and transfers from other offices within the organization. They are all different in many ways because they come from different backgrounds, cultures, have their own preferences, opinions and so on. Such differences are what encourage conflicts within workplaces unless the management finds ways of making these employees work together effectively.
Assessment of Findings in Miami, FL
Professional sports and college team fans have reasons why they follow their favored professional sports and college teams. In Miami, Florida, there are a number of professional sports and local college teams that happen to be popular. Their popularity has them gain a large number of devoted fans. Each fan has his or her own reasons why he or she prefers to be a devoted fan for a certain sport or college team. According to King (2010), the following are passion drivers or rather factors that determine a fan’s passion and support for a professional sport or a college team; team devotion, love of the game, sense of belonging, talks and socializing, personal indulgence, nostalgia, television preference.
Now, being a devoted sports fan means you can go to extreme levels of defending your team whether it produces positive or negative results in public or anything little about the sport or team that needs defense. This team devotion is the main reason making workforces in Miami, Florida office to move from a friendly rivalry zone into an extreme rivalry zone that is causing concern and such extremes leads to fighting, hooliganism, rioting and some, with career-ending or even fatal consequences such as employees looking for work elsewhere, stress and reduced productivity, and involved parties having trouble with organization management. It is evident that such conflict among fans is attributed to the fact that the fans view each other’s team’s athletics as the enemy. The fans believe that serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with jealousy, hatred, boastfulness, ignoring the rules, and cruel pleasure in violence; it is a war without the act of shooting. Such believe is what is pushing workers’ in Miami, FL to go to extremes hence raising concerns.
Additionally, hostility acts in sports, particularly, if perceived as unfair, increases the likelihood of violent acts by spectators. Fan hostility is further magnified by strong identification with the team, underlying racial and ethnic tensions, social separation, alcohol consumption, and a predominance of men and even women and this is the same case for the workers in the Miami, Florida office of Fig Technologies.
Assessment of Findings in Kansas City, MO
Diversity refers to a range of differences between people which covers age, race, gender, background, ethnic group, personality, cognitive style, residence, organizational function, education, sexual orientation, religion, disability and more (Greenberg, 2009).
Based on Kansas City, MO office scenario, a few individuals have begun hanging out together and talking in the break areas about their relationships with same-sex partners, multiple partners, and some encounters of homosexual and heterosexual relationships together. A petition is circulating around the Kansas City office about these types of discussions being banned. Now, this type of topic is regarded sensitive and it is advisable for one to learn the rules and laws of the state he/she is in and where he/she is employed. This is important because many workplaces and even a number of states have policies and laws against or in favor of sexual orientation; checking and understanding such states laws as well as workplace policies is important.
Now, discussions about sexual orientation within the workplace should be prohibited because a workplace comprises many workforces who have variety of differences. They are all not in the sexual orientation group/category therefore; some will find it very uncomfortable to hear discussions being carried out in workplace among workers. They may accommodate the sexual orientation individuals outside the workplace and even within the workplace. They will even work together but they may not accommodate their sexual orientation discussions. They feel that such talk should be private.
Banning such topics within a workplace is a good idea because each person has his or her own believe. People come from different races where sexual orientation is termed as either good or bad, some from religions that encourage or prohibit sexual orientation, some from countries or even states that have banned or encouraged it. Therefore, it is morally right to respect peoples’ stand by not discussing such topics in workplaces; employees will feel comfortable, discrimination will be avoided and they will all work together to accomplish organizational goals without any conflicts whatsoever.
It is crucial to understand the fact that there will always be sexual orientation individuals among people; therefore, it is good to embrace them so that they feel that they are not being discriminated. Without showing them discrimination, they will be ready to work hard, in a collaborative way and feel comfortable among other workers. But I would advise that if the few employees feel like discussing such topics, then they should do it outside the workplace.
Recommendation for Addressing These Findings to The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) For Review
To begin with, diversity comprises a variety of differences between people and for employees to work effectively within the organization, the management needs to recognize immediate action and be ready and willing to spend resources on managing diversity in the workplace. It means bringing people together regardless of their differences into a cohesive and productive unit. In order to survive, a company needs to be able to manage and utilize its diverse workplace effectively. Diversity management should be a part of the culture of the entire organization.
Benefits of Diversity
-Increased adaptability; workers bring different talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands.
-A variety of viewpoints; workforce will communicate varying of viewpoints hence providing a number of different ideas, as well as experiences which can drive an organization in meeting its business plan needs as well as customers’ needs.
– Diverse skills and experiences like languages and cultural understanding allow an organization to provide service to customers globally.
– The companies that encourage diversity in the workplace motivate all of their employees to perform to their highest ability meaning strategies can be executed resulting in increased productivity, profit as well as investments returns.
Disadvantages of Diversity
– Ineffective communication of key objectives result in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale due to cultural and language barriers.
– There is employees’ resistance to change by refusing to accept the fact that the social and cultural makeup of their workplace is changing.
– Diversity training alone is not sufficient for an organization’s diversity management plan. A strategy must be created and implemented to create a culture of diversity that permeates every department and function of the organization.
-Diversity can be linked to conflicts, employee absenteeism, and lower performance quality.
Recommendations
It is a reality that most people are uncomfortable with competitiveness. When competition or rivalry goes sour, it hurts job performance. It creates undue stress and reduced productivity as well as trouble with management. Therefore, identifying what motivates workforce and fostering healthier competition may help management curb the negative feelings that may arise from people who get overly competitive. Employees should find common ground through sports to counter competitive tensions and if the tension is not controlled, then one should distance him/herself from his/her rival/competitor.
The management should create and enforce feasible organizational rules and regulations to control certain activities within the organization. They should make sure that diversity is embraced within the organization to minimize chances of conflict emerging. All employees should adhere to the set rules and regulation and strict penalties be issued in case rules and regulations are broken. People need rules that help them understand the differences they experience, and to help deal with confrontation and conflict; without solid and enforceable rules, employees will not understand what they can expect and misunderstanding will often escalate into conflicts (Mitchell, 2016).
As a manager, intervene early when a fight or rivalry erupts between workers. The sooner you step in the better because when a dispute starts, emotions can run high hence making it harder for management to diffuse the extreme situation. The management should conduct diversity training to help increase awareness about diversity issues, reduces biases and stereotypes and change behaviors of employees.
