DIVERSITY OF WORKFORCE IN ORGANIZATIONS

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What is diversity?

Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc. (Esty et al 1995 cited in  Algahtani, 2013, pp.53)

Globalization and Diversity 

 The rapidly increasing globalization has created a situation where more people from various diverse backgrounds interact with each other. Worldwide economy is competing within a global framework and people have become a part of it. Due to this reason, organizations have more diversified workforce to remain in competition.

Benefits of Diversity in workplace 

In a work place employees are interdependent and respecting individual differences can increase productivity. Diverse workforce will increase marketing opportunities, recruitment, creativity, and business image. Further it will reduce lawsuits. Both employers and employees are benefited from diversity (Esty et al. 1995 cited in Green, 2002).

A company’s performance and bottom line improves with a diverse workforce.

A key driver of internal innovation and business growth is workforce diversity. This was identified through a study done by Forbes (Walter, 2014).

Global Examples 

Denny's is a table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,600 restaurants in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom etc. In early 90’s it became infamous by denying service to African Americans. The Company faced two lawsuits for discrimination and repeated civil rights violations, which ended up settling the cases for $ 54 million. Due to the above the company went through a major transformation and appointed a chief diversity officer, mandatory diversity training was given to employees and a policy was implemented not to tolerate any discrimination. Further they increased hiring minority employees. With all these changes Denny’s was ranked by the Fortune magazine as the best place for minorities to work in 2000 and 2001 (Barak, 2005)

 Virgin’s success over the 40 years has been the company’s policy of employing a diverse workforce, from a variety of backgrounds and who have various skills, viewpoints and personalities which will help to spot opportunities, anticipate problems and come up with original solutions before the competitors (Branson, 2018)

Reference

Algahtani, A., 2013. Diversity in the Corporate Setting. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(14), pp. 53-57.

Barak, M., 2005. The Management of Workplace Diversity. [Online]
Available at: https://brownkutschenkovargo.weebly.com/real-world-examples.html
[Accessed 25 june 2018].

Branson, R., 2018. Why Richard Branson Values Diversity. [Online]
Available at: https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/why-richard-branson-values-diversity
[Accessed 25 June 2018].

Green, K. et al., 2002. Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools. University of Florida/IFAS Extension, Volume HR022.

Walter, E., 2014. Forbes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2014/01/14/reaping-the-benefits-of-diversity-for-modern-business-innovation/#3653ad652a8f
[Accessed 25 June 2018].

  

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS

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Employee Engagement Meaning

Employees harness themselves towards the work roles of the organization. This may be physical, cognitive and emotional which is elaborated as employee engagement (Kahn 1990 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.194).

Components of Employee Engagement

According to Armstrong (2014), motivation, commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour are three overlapping components of employee engagement.

 Motivation

The factors that influence people to behave in certain ways, the strength and direction of behaviour is motivation (Armstrong, 2014).

Commitment

The strength of an individual’s identification with, and involvement in, an organization (Armstrong, 2014). 

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

When the employees behave beyond the expected level in duty to contribute towards the achievement of the organizational effectiveness, this situation is organizational citizenship behaviour (Organ 1988 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.196).

                                           Model of employee engagement

                                                    Source: Armstrong et al (2000)

Drivers of Employee Engagement

Research firms have identified the following as the key factors which are the drivers of employee engagement (The Conference Board 2006 cited in Singh 2016, pp.364-368).

• Trust & integrity

• Nature of the job and pride about the company

• Line of sight between employee performance and company performance

• Career growth opportunities and employee development

• Relationship with managers and coworkers

Outcome of Employee Engagement

High level of engagement is linked to the following (Stairs and Galpin 2010 cited in Armstrong 2014, p.197).

• Low absenteeism and high employee retention

• Increased effort and productivity from employees

• Improved quality with reduced error rate

• Increased sales, higher profitability and increased earnings per share

• Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty

Example on Employee Engagement

According to the surveys conducted by Gallup organization, they have found out that when employee engagement is in high degree business units perform 83% above the company median and in contrast the performance is only 17% when the employees are with low engagement (Dressler, 2013).

Southwest Airline was ranked 8^th in the world’s most respected companies in a survey of corporate executives by Fortune Magazine 2018.

Gary Kelly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Airline said “Our employees are dedicated to the basics- Reliability, Hospitality, and low costs, but their dedication makes Southwest anything but basic. It’s what sets us apart. It’s an honour and a tribute to our employees to be the top 10 most admired companies in the world” (Anon, 2018)

From the above example we can see how the employee engagement has contributed towards the success of the organization.

References

Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Dessler, G., 2013. Human Resource Management. 13th ed. USA: Prentice Hall.

Singh, Y., 2016. Employee Engagement as a Contemporary Issue in HRM--A Conceptual Framework. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 6(5), pp. 364-368.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/southwest-airlines/2018/01/19/southwest-airlines-named-among-worlds-10-admired-companies-fortune

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMANT IN ORGANIZATIONS

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What is performance

Performance is the Behaviour that accomplishes results (Brumbach 1988, cited in Armstrong 2014, p.334).

Performance Management (PM)

PM is the function of aligning the performance of the individuals and teams towards the organization’s strategic goals. This is a continuous process which identify, measure and develop their performance (Aguinis,2013).

Underpinning Theories

Goal Theory -  supports the emphasis in PM on setting and agreeing objectives against which performance can be measured and managed (Latham and Locke 1979, cited in Armstrong 2014, p.335).

Control Theory – priority is given on feedback, aligning the behaviour of employees towards the organizational goals. Through feedback, discrepancies are identified and corrective measures are taken to rectify same (Armstrong, 2017).

Social Cognitive Theory - Social cognitive theory was developed by Bandura (1986).  Developing and improving positive self-confidence in employees has been identified as an important PM objective.

 

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Principals of Performance Management 

The following are the principals stated by Armstrong (2017),

·        PM should have clear organizational goals which is aligned with measurable success criteria.

·        Be simple and focus on performance improvement with clarity of roles. Further it should be designed and implemented with the involvement of employees.

·        Be aligned with learning and development initiatives and regularly assessed themselves against success criteria.

·        Be transparent and equitable and explain the rationale which links them to rewards.

Success story of Implementing the Performance Management System

Merrill Lynch is one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory company, with offices in 36 countries and private client assets of approximately UD$1.1 trillion. The company has implemented a PM system where managers and employees have regular conversations and feedback is exchanged. Coaching is given if needed. Frequent reviews of the goals are met overcoming the deviations. Further they have developed a website which contains all information about the aspects of PM for the reference of managers. The new PM system clearly defines the organization’s expectation from the employees, their development path in career and how they will be judged relative to compensation (Aguinis, 2013).

At Toyota Motor’s Lexington, Kentucky, Camry plant, teams of employees monitor their own results, individual daily performance metrics is updated. With regular meetings, they continuously align those results with the work team’s standards and with the plant’s overall quality and productivity needs. Team members who need coaching and training receive it, and procedures that need changing are changed (Dessler, 2013).

References

Armstrong, M., 2017. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Aguinis, H., 2013. Performance Management. 3rd ed. USA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Bandura, A.,1977. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall

Dessler, G., 2013. Human Resource Management.13th ed. USA: Prentice Hall.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND THE WORK DESIGN

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Organizations plan how things should be done in the workplace by individuals and teams. Further they decide the job role of each individual. These two functions are categorized as work design and job design accordingly.

Work Design defined

Work design is preparing systems and procedures of work, along with a suitable working atmosphere to enhance the productivity and effectiveness to make the organization a great place to work, giving priority to health, safety and wellbeing of employees (Armstrong, 2014).

Job Design Defined

Job design is defined as specifying the contents, methods and relationships of jobs, with the aim of achieving the organizational and technological goals. Further satisfying the social and personal requirements of the job holder is also taken into consideration  (Buchanan, 1979).

Past and Present of Work Design

Adam Smith (1776) originated the concept of division of labour which is the beginning of work design.

Taylor (1911) introduced the scientific management movement, which transferred the responsibility from individual employee to engineers or managers. This method is called ‘Taylorism’.

Henry Ford (1914) introduced the moving assembly line, which is called ‘Fordism’. Work simplification practice was embedded in organizations.

According to CIPD (2008) ‘smart working’ is the present context of work design, which focus on managing the work environment in order to release employees’ energy and drive business performance.

Smart Working

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CIPD (2008) through its research identified smart working arrangements include flexible working hours, high performance working, lean production and designing jobs in which there is a higher degree of freedom to act.

Global Examples for Smart Working

The Australian Government’s Fair Work Act 2009 allows eligible employees to request flexible work arrangements from their employer. Flexible work options are a key feature of age-friendly workplaces that successfully attract and retain older workers.

In February 2013, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) consolidated 800,000 square feet into 208,000 while implementing its smart working initiative program, which:

1.     Eliminated hierarchical barriers by removing individual offices and cubicles. Decreased square footage with the optimized and increased utilization of meeting and work spaces.

2.     Decreased water, energy, and paper usage with energy-saving fixtures.

3.     An open space floor plan designed to speed up decision making, reduce email and formal meetings, and enhance collaboration and trust.

References 

Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Hand of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Buchanan, D. A., 1979. The Development of Job Design Theories and Techniques. New York: Praeger Publishers.

CIPD, 2008. Smart Working: How smart is UK PLC? Findings from organizational practice. CIPD.

Government of Western Australia Public Sector Commission 2010,

 A Guide to Managing an Ageing Workforce, http://www.publicsector.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/guide_to_managing_an_ageing_workforce.pdf Accessed on 6^th June 6, 2018 at 9.40pm

Work Design Magazine

http://www.franciscauffman.com/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/GSK_Haworth_CaseStudy_LoRes%20WorkDesign%20Magazine.pdf  Accessed on 6^th June 6, 2018 at 9.55pm