MANAGING DIVERSITY

Personal and Managerial Effectiveness

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion1

Diversity in the workplace1

Interpretations of workplace diversity1

Contemporary organizations and management perspectives2

Effective Approaches to managing diversity3

Strategies3

Opportunities and threats in diversity3

Value of managing diversity5

Value of a personal critique6

Importance of skills needed to deal with diversity related dilemmas6

Personal Opportunities Diagnosis7

Conclusion7

References9

Managing Diversity

Introduction

Diversity refers to the idea of having something coming from different backgrounds; workplace diversity refers to the idea of having employees in a company from different cultural backgrounds, genders, tastes, lifestyles, languages, etc.

Marks & Spencer Private Limited is studied closely for this assignment and its diversity handling is carefully reviewed. The company's operations are contrasted with contemporary organisational view and its strategies are evaluated. Also, the opportunities and threats that a diverse workforce poses to Marks & Spencer are reviewed and elaborated upon. The company provides equal opportunities for every individual irrespective of age, gender, ethnic origin, nationality, sexual preference, religious beliefs, disability, etc. It believes in giving everyone an equal chance to prove his or herself as an important asset to the organisation.

Discussion

Diversity in the workplace

Interpretations of workplace diversity

Describe: workplace diversity refers to the concept of having people in an organisation which belong to different parts of the world and have different backgrounds, cultures, languages, values, and lifestyles. The concept of having a diverse workplace comes in when either an organisation goes global, or the place where that business has its offices, has people from all sorts of cultures and backgrounds, or both (www.learning-work.co.uk, 2011). Equal Employment Opportunities should be given to each individual to prove his or herself.

An analysis of Marks & Spencer reveals that they have a diverse workforce at every level within the organisation. They avoid discrimination, harassment, etc amongst their employees. They also ensure that equal opportunities for growth are provided to each employee regardless of his or her background, beliefs, age, disability, ethnic origin, etc (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2013). Having a workforce from diverse backgrounds brings up a lot of opportunities for growth and learning.

Contemporary organizations and management perspectives

Distinguish from contemporary organisations

Contemporary organisations refer to modern-day organisations. Modern organisations focus on effectiveness which is the concept of working with the least possible resources and producing the most possible output from the given resources, with no or minimum possible wastage (Chattopadhyay & Malhotra, n.d.).

Contemporary organisations include those which have gone global and employ people from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, such as HSBC bank in London.

The management perspectives to workforce diversity earlier focused on organisations which had many layers and a structured hierarchy. The structure has changed greatly over the years; delayering and flattening in organisations has completely redefined and reengineered their business processes. Rigidity has been removed which means that now organisations are lowering their barriers and going global; thus, the need to acknowledge and maintain a diverse workforce exists (Otley 1994, pp.288-289).

Effective Approaches to managing diversity

Strategies

Marks and Spencer manages diversity very well. It employs a Diversity Action Plan in order to attract and retain a socially and culturally diverse workforce. That enables it to hire the best people and fulfil ...