Diversity Management in Multinational Organizations

Question: Discuss about the Diversity Management in Multinational Organizations. Answer: Introduction: Simply defined, Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. This definition appears so simple; however, there are vats implications of diversity management at workplace. The concept of diversity management may sound simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more. Workplace diversity and diversity management is a vast field and this paper would focus on diversity management in multicultural environment (Lauring, 2013). The use of diversity management is pretty much more important for multinational organizations as they would have the people from different cultures and backgrounds. Cultural diversity requires that people understand and respect the cultures and values of other cultures. Changing societal trends require that organizations respond responsibly, respectfully, and ethically to accommodate the new trends. According to research completed by (Resick, Hanges, Dickson, Mitchelson, 2006) there are some universal understandings of diversity management that makes it a little easier to implement in the global context. The universal concepts that they listed are freedom to employees, increase adaptability, effective communication and change management encouragement (Resick et al., 2006). The research concluded that these four concepts are global, but are valued at varying degrees across cultures so leaders need to ensure that they are aware of the cultural expectations throughout the decision-making process (Resick et al., 2006). There was a time when people used to believe that diversity management can be ignored as it is not linked with organizational performance and employee productivity. However, this view has changed and today organizations have realized that by allowing employees to be creative and include ideas and creations that they would be willing to pay for affords companies the ability to stay ahead (Alcazar Romero, 2013). Employees are more plugged in to the social network and have a better idea of what consumers want. The diversity management approach can be helpful in many ways. With this approach in place, Daft, (2015) explains that it combines both the organic and mechanic organizational structures together for multinational organizations. This is done by allowing freedom of information to flow in the organization as seen in organic organizations, but still implement an order of hierarchy as seen in mechanic organizational structure. Groschl, (2011) shares the example of Toyota that has mastered the art of diversity management. They allowed young staff members the freedom to review old technology and discover how new technology could advance the organization but they still reported up to a senior member in the organization. The diversity management approach worked being that it allowed the change to not hold back but to conduct work in manner that was once not used in the organization and at one time could have been seen to break the rules. By allowing this, Toyota could remain competitive in t he market and adapt to change by presenting better technology in vehicles. The focus on diversity management enabled Toyota to get the best talent from the market. With this approach, Toyota use the geocentric approach of recruitment and recruited the people across the globe irrespective of their cultural backgrounds (Benschop Holgersson, 2015). Sarkees, et al. (2010) shares that the diversity management approach is most helpful when needing change. This is so because when organization find themselves struggling in the market, the diversity management approach aids in avoiding pitfalls and reaching more functional levels. The diversity management approach is most helpful because it allows organizations to explore new opportunities and methods they can implement in the organization while maintaining in the current market (Sarkees, et al. 2010). Sarkees, et al. (2010) states that the diversity management approach has been successful in organizations implementing change by forming new and more effective marketing strategies and increasing the level of performance in the organization. According to Daft, Murphy, and Willmott (2010), organizations using a diversity management approach strive to create systems and management structures that support both the development and the implementation of innovative ideas. According to Karrer and Fleck (2015), a diversity management approach is necessary to balance the inherent conflict between an organizations creative arm and organizational divisions responsible for maintaining current organizational processes. It would be correct to say that leaders also have an important role to play to establish and to create a culture of diversity management. Tarody, (2016) suggest the concern of making a definite choice is a challenge between the exploration of trade off and exploring another create dependencies where leadership is distracted in the decision-making and leads to inappropriate adaptations when explicit choices have to be made. Moreover, Tarody, (2016) suggest contradictions in the subfields of diversity management; structu ral and contextual ambidexterity is not a simple case of exportation-exploitation due to the difference in leadership competencies systems, processes, cultures, incentives need to be created, maintained, held together and internally aligned with the strategic intent articulated at the structural level. From my experiences, when all of those are not in place, it can create the misalignment of the strategy intent even though each is acting independently to create the coordination requisite mechanism of leadership. Research by OReilly and Tushman (2013) suggests that use of organizational ambidexterity places organizations in a position to explore and exploit (p.324) the elements of both mature and new technologies in the marketplace. A diversity management approach can be beneficial in a situation such as Dell, Inc. and their attempt to revitalize their company (Daft, 2015). With the recurring reference that the type of organizational structure used is dependent on the life cycle stage the organization is operating in (Quinn Cameron, 1983), the use of ambidextrous approach is beneficial at some points and not feasible at others. In the transformation Dell is taking with their new areas of development, using a diversity management approach enables the company to seize the new opportunities as they reorganize, and exploit the resources the company has developed over the term of its growth (OReilly Tushman, 2013). The challenge is discovering the proper way to leverage the resources without inf ringing on the autonomy of the new departments. In this scenario, another approach would probably not be beneficial. Dell has found that bureaucracy lends to mechanistic operations, which leads to declines in market share and innovation (Kersten, 2000). If an organization were in the early stages of its life cycle, the ambidextrous approach would not be one that fits. The organization would not have the resources available to exploit within their own group. It would be correct to say that diversity management should be used wisely within the organizations. The management should be careful while developing and implementing the diversity management policies. It is important that the people from any cultural background should not get offended with any of the policies (Janssens Zanoni, 2014). It is suggested that the management should take a step-wise or a gradual approach to implement the diversity management strategies. This approach is definitely one that fits in organizations who have longevity and the experience from which new departments can glean information. The previous review of Dell, Inc. is another example of an organization that would benefit from a diversity management approach. In fact, it would be correct to say that any organizations that has a global presence and that has the employees from various cultural and diverse backgrounds would be benefited with the approach of diversity management. Making a diversity management approach can be helpful when changing organizational structure because this approach provides a different perspective to how an organization grows. There are a series of events which follow when making a structural change. For starters, is it important that they follow a series of events that are specific to the desired change. (Jones, 2013) these changes can be difficult because they challenge existing power and authority relationships (Jones, 2013) this approach is most needed when an organization is stagnant in the growth when the COE or leader of the organization decides to stop leading or should people say thinking from the days of old then they will soon begin to think out of the box regarding the organizational structure and change. According to OReilly and Tushman (2004) for organizations to have effective diverse culture the organizations leadership and managers must operate with a diverse methodology even if team members do not contribute much to diversity. A diversity man agement approach creates a competitive advantage through revolutionary change and evolutionary change (Bleijenbergh Peters, 2010). Conversely, organizations which create a competitive advantage through adaptability and alignment are deemed highly diverse organizations. 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