MANAGING DIVERSITY IN MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION
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MANAGING DIVERSITY IN MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background of the Study
Managers are being pushed to increase productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction while lowering expenses. These aims, however, can only be achieved with the participation and commitment of all employees.
Organisations that create pleasant work environments in which employees feel valued and appreciated are more likely to encourage the employee commitment and performance required for organisational success.
Consider the following instances from Kreitner, Kinicki, and Buelens (2002), which contradict the preceding statement and come from three different work situations.”
Ade Arogundade, a finance manager with Springboard Southward Trust has received racist literature telling him he is not wanted at the organisation and has been the subject of anonymous petitions sent to mangers demanding that all black employees be removed from the work force” .
In addition, a research revealed deplorable behaviour in the Dutch police force: “79 percent of female employees had been presented with pin-ups, 55 percent with “dirty gestures,” 38 percent with blue films, and 44 percent had the impression that male colleagues were “undressing them with their eyes” (Hooghiemstra 1998).
Finally, Kreitner et al. (2002) mentioned Sarah Locker, “a woman police officer, who received pornographic magazines on her desk and literature making derogatory references to her Turkish background; she decided to take her complaints to court.”
She won her lawsuit, but she faced even greater animosity when she returned to work. The episode eventually culminated with a major suicide attempt.
Sandra Valentine, a female pilot, stated that a male coworker informed her that “women should not be allowed to use anything more technical than a knife and fork.”
A senior pilot once declared to passengers, “The first officer is Ms. Valentine, and yes, ladies and gentlemen, she is a woman we have in the front as well as the back these days, so do not blame me.”
However, managing diversity is a sensitive, frequently turbulent, and at times painful problem. Creating a diversified workforce is becoming increasingly important in both Europe and the United States. Jitan Patel, race equality manager at HSBC, a large UK bank, asserts, ”
For us, true diversity means that we value every individual for who and what they are, and we provide them with opportunities to reach their full potential within the organisation.”
However, diversity refers to the plethora of individual differences and similarities that exist among people (Kretiner et al, 2002). This definition emphasises three critical aspects of managing diversity. First, there are numerous aspects or components to diversity.
This indicates that diversity applies to everyone. It is not about age, ethnicity, or gender. It makes no difference whether you are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Celestian, or Muslim.
Diversity does not pit “white males” against all other groups. Diversity refers to the various distinctive differences that distinguish each of us from one another.
Second, diversity does not imply “differences”. Instead, it includes both contrasts and similarities. This means that managing diversity necessitates addressing both simultaneously.
As Price (2004) puts it, people are unique. They differ in gender, culture, racial, social, and psychological traits. He confirmed that our attitudes towards their differences could be negative or good, depending on our personal perspectives and preconceptions.
As members of organisations, it is difficult to question the frequently unconscious behaviours and intricately crafted excuses for unfairness. Not least because discrimination and prejudice are manifestations of power that include the ability to restrict, suppress, or punish critical speech.
However, if people are a company’s most valuable assets, it is critical to maximise their human capital. True competitive advantage necessitates the best from everyone, without exception, and a prejudice-free inclusive attitude towards current and potential employees. It necessitates diversity.
Nonetheless, fairness, justice, or whatever we name it, is crucial, and it is lacking in the majority of companies, particularly international corporations. Every person should be judged on his work, not on his appearance, manners, personality, or who he knows or is linked to (Townsend, 1970).
Why should multinational corporations and their management provide equitable opportunity for a varied spectrum of employees? The judging viewpoints are indefinable and might be associated to many HRM models (Goss, 1994). They are Human Capital and Social Justice.
Artificially impeding the advancement of any group leads in suboptimal utilisation of an organization’s human capital. Discrimination is unreasonable since it reduces the resource value of employees.
In terms of social justice, a moral or ethical concern in social equality is consistent with soft or social market Human Resource Management (HRM). Economic rewards are secondary to the social ills.
1.1 Statement of the Research Problem
Diversity, as it exists, is a sensitive, potentially combustible, and occasionally unconformable subject. It is hardly surprising that organisations face major challenges when attempting to implement direct management. The following is a list of the most typical challenges to successfully implementing diversity programming.
i). Inaccurate stereotypes and prejudice–this issue manifests as weaknesses. As a result, the perception that diversity recruiting requires abandoning expertise and quality grows.
ii) The problem of ethnocentrism, which is the belief that one’s own society’s standards and norms are superior or more acceptable than those of another culture.
iii) Poor career planning, which is linked to a lack of opportunity for diverse personnel to get job assignments that qualify them for senior management roles.
iv) An unsupportive and hostile work environment that excludes minority employees from social events and friendly companionship that are common in most offices.
v) Concerns about reverse discrimination. Some employees assume that managing diversity is a cover for reverse discrimination. This notion generates significant opposition because individuals believe that one person’s gain is another’s loss.
The necessity to improve the organization’s performance appraisal and reward system. Performance appraisals and reward systems must stress the importance of effectively managing diversity.
This means that success will be determined using a new set of criteria. Employees are more inclined to reject changes that will have a negative impact on their promotions and financial rewards.
1.2 Study Objectives
The study focuses on managing diversity in international organisations. Hence, the following are the precise objectives:
i). Identify ways that reduce expenses and improve employee attitudes in global organisations.
ii) To improve multinational organisations’ recruiting efforts through increased productivity.
iii) Improve group problem-solving and productivity.
iv) Increase sales, market share, and company profits.
vi) To address the issues that arise during the process of managing diversity and to demonstrate the relationship that exists between diversity management and organisational productivity.
1.3 Statement of Research Questions
i) How can communication contribute to good diversity management?
ii) How is diversity effectively managed?
Is there a major relationship between diversity management and international organisations?
iv) Can diversity management help a multinational organisation?
v) Can any organisation distinguish between equal opportunity and diversity management?
1.4 Statement of Research Hypothesis
H1: Ho: There is no significant link between recruiting and diversity management.
Hi: There is no clear link between recruitment and diversity management.
H2 Ho: Communication is not successful in managing diversity.
H1: Communication is effective in managing diversity.
H3: Ho: There is no relationship between diversity management and organisational productivity.
H1: There exists a link between diversity management and organisational productivity.
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