BUSI1630 Cross Cultural Management And Diversity Management Homework Answer

Answer :

BUSI1630 Cross-Cultural Management and Diversity Management

Introduction

The concept of diversity is very broad, and various authors' arguments regarding diversity are also different. However, diversity can be defined as how or a policy through which the workforce can be managed by a business entity that includes people from different cultural, racial, sexual and ethnic backgrounds (Kirton and Greene, 2015). Along with the diversity can also be defined as the theoretical paradigm that enlightens the aspects of socio-bio-demographic differences of people. It can be argued that diversity is a crucial and significant descriptor of an entire workforce that represents the massive array of differences among people. Therefore, diversity management has become crucial as the dynamic business environment and overwhelming customer demand pressure business organizations to embrace diversity within the workplace. In today's challenging business environment, business entities can easily tackle the multiple demands of customers by accumulating the knowledge, skill and potential of a diverse workforce (Chron, 2021). One of the crucial importance of diversity management is the ability of a company to initiate change that can attract numerous customers to its offerings. By considering the aspects of diversity management, an organization can easily emphasize cultural intelligence where every individual shares their concern with others and provides value to others' thoughts. The Equality Act 2010 is implemented by the United Kingdom's government bodies to safeguard people legally from discrimination in the workplace. Previously within the UK, several anti-discrimination laws existed, which are replaced by this single act. This act represents the approach of people that impact adversely on the mental and physical condition of an individual through discriminatory behaviour. Hence, the specific aspect of pregnancy and maternity, which is one of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, is taken into account for evaluating the aspects through which contemporary organizations can address diversity-oriented issues (GOV, 2021). Poor diversity management can negatively impact a company's brand value, preventing the company from attracting customers and talented employees. The forthcoming essay will look into diversity management issues and evaluate the solutions of the issues. Regarding the same, diversity management theories and organizational examples will be taken into account to grasp a deep insight into the solutions for managing diversity. 

Discussion

Challenges of diversity management

Despite giving several advantages by fostering diversity, diversity management also includes some significant challenges that need to be anticipated by the organization in order to utilize the core aspect of diversity management and meet its objective that is the development of a diverse and inclusive workforce. The first and foremost challenge regarding diversity management is the communication barrier. Communication barriers are a crucial obstacle in developing a diverse workforce as they can lead to misunderstanding among people (Clohisy, Yaszemski and Lipman, 2017). For example, the British accent is different from the American and Australian English, due to which if within the workplace, people from this region work then their thoughts can be misunderstood by others. Hence it can lead to significant conflict and contradiction that can prevent a company from seeking effectual output from the workforce. In this regard, Social Identity Theory represents the negative outcome of diversity management. The theory represents the perceived thought of people about a specific group of people (Hogg, 2016). This creates dominance of the superior group that creates a burden in the case of productivity. It can be argued that disability can generate a significant amount of fear among disabled people at a psychological level. However, disability can arise within a person at any time, which should not be taken into account by a business entity. Apart from that, whenever a company try to open a business in a new location or hire diverse employees from different countries, different people and religious cultures can negatively impact its business activities (French, 2015). People belonging to superior groups set difficulties for people by creating distancing among people that negatively impact the self-esteem aspect of people. It is found that most of the surveys reveal that due to the rise in global migration, most of the nations nowadays are favouring diversity management rather than opposing the aspect. In this regard, the UK and Canada are more diverse as compared to the US. The UK and Canada are also more favourable towards diversity management, where the US is less favourable towards diversity management. The statistics showcase that, in terms of favour, the UK represents 62%, where the US showcases 61% (Poushter and Fetterolf, 2019).

As per the report of 2018, 13.8% of the entire UK's population keep a minority ethnic background, where only London has 40% that includes BAME background (Diversityuk, 2020). According to a report, one of the renowned and giant e-commerce companies is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd utilizes a facial recognition system to identify or distinguish a Uighur person. IPVM, the US-based surveillance industry, reveals the fact where it is argued by the authorities of IPVM Alibaba authorities use the system to take down the videos of a Uighur person (Davidson, 2020). However, Alibaba is famous for its Secret Sauce initiative that focuses on women's empowerment within the workplace. The chairman of the company Jack Ma describes women as the significant secret behind the business growth of Alibaba group (Emplify, 2021). According to Jack Ma, women give more focus on robotics and machine learning than men that provide a significant advantage to the authorities of Alibaba (Emplify, 2021). Hence, Alibaba is an excellent example to follow by other companies in order to manage diversity. 

In pregnancy and maternity, organizations face complex challenges filling up the vacuum while a woman takes pregnancy leave. Even after the phase, maternity and work management has become difficult for women. As per the criteria of diversity management in organizations, the women tackle the challenging situation when there occurs an absence of guidance and support from the managers or leaders of the organization during the phase of pregnancy (Stumbitz, Lewis, and Rose, 2018). The unsympathetic attitude or less understanding capability of the boss creates many difficulties for a pregnant woman in the workplace. However, it is challenging to fill the gap of talent while the maternity continuum (Tandon, 2021). The Schema theory can be relevant to the situation as it shows the negative effect of diversity management. The theory states the facts oriented to the failure of diversity management as often in organizations, and employees are categorized as belonging to particular demographic characteristics. In the case of maternity and pregnancy, the employees often consider the woman as an out-group. This creates a challenging situation for the woman. The McKinsey company faced it challenging to manage gender diversity in the workplace. The report from the company shows that around 64,000 employees in North America are raising their voices against the slow progress of gender equality within the workplace (Sneader and Yee, 2019). The discrimination is seen where the number of working women lags, which accounts for 42%. Women during the pregnancy phase are likely to work less than 6months.

Figure 1: Diversity Management in Mc Kinsey Company

Source: (Mckinsey, 2020)

Hostility is another challenge that women have to face during pregnancy and maternity. In diverse cultures, the employees often take bias decisions rather than depending on their logic and facts; they tend to behave with their judgemental view (Fraserdove, 2019). This leads to unconsciously biased decision-making. Even it ends in distrust. Allegations on pregnant women have been driven to try to take extra advantage in the name of pregnancy. Without understanding the difficulties of women, employees often become hostile. This creates a pathetic situation for the woman to continue the work in a diverse culture. The Stereotypes theory of diversity management can show adverse outcomes in this situation. The theory indicates the overgeneralization of characteristics. In this case, the pregnant woman is overgeneralized, and this is taken into account that the woman is taking the prejudice. The misunderstanding leads to failure in diversity management. Fairness and justice are highly needed in managing maternity in the workplace (Dahanayake et al. 2018). The organization Motorola Solutions is facing diversity management issues as the organization has fewer female employees to develop their stem (Zenon, 2019). The organization is currently running short out of women employees as it is facing critical issues in women's diversity management. Only 15% of organizations have on-site child care facilities, which denote the challenging situation for new mothers in workplaces. Less than 10% of women work during pregnancy. However, around 46% of employees agree in asking the women if they have a young child during recruitment (Equalityhumanrights, 2018).

Recommendations regarding the challenges 

The communication barrier in diversity management can be resolved through the necessary recommendations. Agreeing on a common language will help to mitigate the conflicts due to the existence of diverse languages in a work culture (Park, 2020). Hiring a bilingual trainer will help the organization manage diversity in the work environment (Fraserdove, 2019). In the case of an international organization, this process can be effective. It will bridge the communication gap and support the employees to express their ideas and views. For example, in Amazon, the communication representatives help manage the communication system within the diverse culture (Rey, 2018). Asking the employees regarding the clarification of work is necessary. Better clarification will develop a sound communication system (Cletus et al. 2018).

Advantage:  In managing diversity, the communication representative will help develop a cross-cultural communication system within the diverse workplace culture (Evans, and Suklun, 2017).

Disadvantage: The bilingual communicator can create misunderstanding if he or she does not provide the information correctly. It will lead to dispute.

For managing the pregnancy and maternity situation in the workplace, the recommendation can be regarding the sympathetic understanding of the pregnant woman. In that case, light-duty, modified tasks, alternative assignments, unpaid leave, disability leave must be arranged for the pregnant woman. Creating a mother's room for breastfeeding can also be helpful. Creating a support network for the pregnant woman will make her feel comfortable and relaxed while working in the workplace (Brudner, 2018). During pregnancy, the manager or boss needs to understand the situation of the woman and grant some additional leave whenever she feels uncomfortable. Supporting and creating a help network will make the pregnant woman encourage regarding work-life balance management (Bordunos, Kosheleva, and Zyryanova, 2020). In a diverse culture, the woman needs to be supported more. For instance, Amazon provides 20 weeks of paid maternity leave, and the company UpSlide ranked in the best fortune companies for new parents to work (Cavanagh, 2020).

Advantage: Moral support will encourage more pregnant women to work, and it will also help them take care of themselves and their child.

Disadvantage: Considerable conflict can occur in other employees as in a diverse workplace, employees may feel that the pregnant woman is getting extra advantages.

The issue of hostility in a diverse workplace can be mitigated by hiring a manager who will understand the signs of hostility. The training regarding diversity management is helpful to understand the hidden biases in work culture. This will create effective results in supporting pregnant women in diverse work culture. Moreover, training regarding how to create sympathetic understanding can also be helpful. It will also help to respect the differences within the workplace. The awareness training will help the employees to understand the difference between each other (Fraserdove, 2019).  For example, the company Microsoft grants 20 paid weeks after having a baby. Even the organization offers a flexible working method by giving maternity leaves. The training regarding diversity and inclusion in Microsoft's company educates the employees to become free from unconscious bias (Microsoft, 2021). This will end up the mindset where employees overgeneralize one employee's situation, such as overgeneralizing maternity in the workplace. Furthermore, with the inculcation of company values, the quality employees can create a sympathetic understanding of the one who is in a problematic situation (Roberson, 2019). It will be beneficial for a pregnant woman.

Advantage: Understanding the difficulty of a pregnant woman in the workplace will help create a healthy bond and good relationship with the other employees in diverse work culture.

Disadvantage: The employees, if not align with the values in an organization, then the situation can be critical for a pregnant woman to handle.

Synthesis

The study consists of the different aspects of diversity management relating to the maternity and pregnancy issue in the workplace. The prevalent challenges in the workplace help to understand the situation of a pregnant woman in a diverse work culture. The issues regarding communication, understanding, and hostility are most common. It provides the present workplace scenario. The situations are becoming more challenging as most of the organizations in this modern world are going for workplace diversity concept. 

Diversity brings, on the one hand, inclusion, but on the other hand, it creates conflict, hostility, and communication issues. Even sympathetic understanding is also not visible in the modern diverse work culture. The situation becomes challenging even more when the pregnant woman does not get moral support from other employees. She is being misunderstood by the employees that she is taking extra advantage during pregnancy. This is due to the lack of inculcating the values and lack of respect and sympathetic understanding. 

The recommendations are suggested in each section to face the challenges and mitigate the issues arising from the challenges. Relevant examples in the recommendation section provide a realistic view of the implementation plan. The issue regarding the communication process can be managed by breaking the barrier by hiring bilingual employees who can meet the communication demands in diverse work cultures. It will be helpful for a pregnant woman to make herself understood by other employees. The issue of understanding can be mitigated by providing paid, and unpaid maternity leaves to the pregnant woman.

Further, the arrangement of a breastfeeding room for the mother is also an effective solution to support and understand the needs of the mother. The challenge of hostility can be managed through a proper method of diversity training. The employees need to be trained to respect and value the diverse culture. It will help the employees to understand and respect the situation of a pregnant woman, and the employees will be able to provide moral support to the mother.

Conclusion

The essay surrounds the central concept of diversity management for maternity and pregnancy. The different methods of diversity management will help organizations to implement correct methods to manage maternity and pregnancy cases in diverse work cultures. The study involves several challenges in maternity and pregnancy in diverse work management cultures. The examples and statistical analysis of the situation will help understand the gravity of the topic in the present literature. The various challenges which a pregnant woman or a mother has to face in the diverse work environment are clarified with prominent examples. The suggestion is also proposed to manage the challenges. Challenges regarding communication management in diversity can be managed by building a cross-cultural alignment. This can be possible through bilingual employee recruitment. Understanding the critical phase of a woman's pregnancy is highly important. Employee or manager in the organization often fails to understand the situation of pregnant women. For that, sympathetic understanding is needed. Depending upon the criticality of the situation, the pregnant woman should be provided facilities such as maternity leave, paid and unpaid leave, and half-day work leave, etc. The issue regarding hostility within the employees can be managed through educational training regarding diversity management. This will teach value to the employees, which ultimately will help to support pregnant women or mothers. The entire study provides necessary details regarding diversity management for maternity and pregnancy in the workplace through which it is ascertained that diversity is of utmost important, although it has several challenges.