Diversity Management: Challenges and Strategies for HRM

This essay explains the concept of diversity management and analyzes two major challenges faced by HRM in managing diversity in an organization. It also suggests strategies to overcome these challenges and foster inclusiveness and cohesion among employees.

Running head: DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
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Author Note

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The aim of the essay is to explain the diversity management concept and analysis of two
major challenges faced by the HRM in managing diversity in an organization. Management
activities include educating the group and providing support of acceptance of and respect for
various racial, cultural, societal, geographic economic and political backgrounds. Diversity
Management is the effective strategy to inculcate an inclusiveness and cohesion among the
employees belonging from the diverse groups of people. This strategy can be deployed by
including various practices which enables employees for better engagement with the policies and
culture of the organization. Due to rapid globalization and mobility of the people all across the
world, it has helped people to acquire skills which land them in different cities thus leading to the
emerging growth of the workforce across the globe (Klarsfeld et al. 2014). The advent of
advanced science and technology, allow organizations to recruit and manage employees from
nook and corner of the world. For instance, a huge organization of UAE like Emirates Airline
has a huge human resource and professionals from all around the world. The company recruits
people from south Asian countries who migrate for better employment opportunities in the gulf
region. This has led to massive migration of people and thus leading to diverse groups within an
organization. The programs and policies of the organization are also designed to instill the work
culture to present a more welcoming and inclusive group of workforce from the diverse range of
human resource (Barak 2016). The lucrative opportunities has attracted workforce since history,
when in 1980s, the concept of diversity emerged in North America and spread like wildfire to the
different parts of the world. In the era of globalization of the economy and expansion of
multinational corporations and increasing heterogeneous character and nature of the organization
has called for the intranational diversity management and cross-national diversity management.
The intranational diversity management is the effective managing of the human workforce that

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consists of citizens or immigrants in a single national context. It comprise of employment
opportunities to the minority groups who have migrated. In cross-national diversity management,
the workforce are creatively managed who are belonging to the different parts of the world. A
French based company operating in US, Canada and China need to consider and operate within
the framework of the overseas need to inculcate the rules and regulations of the host country in
which t is operating (Sabharwal 2014).
Diversity management is an inherent part of an organization to grow in all spheres
through better management of the workforce, establish mutual trust and confidence in goals and
objectives of the organization, build prior communication channels and iron out the issues
plaguing the organization more promptly (Riccucci 2018). However, it is challenging task as
people from diverse group have their own unique perspective and understanding. Hence in such
a situation, inculcating the organization culture and managing diversity within an organization to
channelize the human resources into a single objective of the company is not an easy task.
Consequently, human resource faces various challenges among which two of them plaguing
intensely are- Gender Inequality and Ethnic and Cultural differences (Wrench 2016).
Gender inequality is one of the foremost challenge for HRM. Considering the gender
differences among the diverse groups, a manager faces immense issues in fostering gender
equality among diverse group of people. The concerns like demographic differences like age,
sexual orientation, marital status affect the work diversity in an organization. Hence, it is
necessary for the organization to assimilate and work as a team. Migration for work
opportunities is more common among men than for women due to which there arises disparity
among the genders thus creating lower female participation in the organization. This create
biasness against women hence women face the heat of this (Al-Jenaibi 2017). Workplaces need

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to be more inclusive and encouraging greater say of women in the workforce is a challenge for
the HRM due which many organizations frame policies to encourage female participation.
Emirates Airlines promotes gender equality by recruiting over 44% of airline workforce as
women which is regarded as its success story in its last 31 years. It also employs over 29,000
from more than 150 nationalities. These women come from diverse backgrounds, and cover a
wide spectrum of operations in airlines. Over 18,000 employees work as a cabin crew and rest
occupy the top leadership roles, technical roles and other executive roles. The number of women
working in the airline has also increased drastically which has multiplied its organizational
growth. Over 2.5% of the females occupy the top managerial posts which earlier were dominated
by men. The proportion of women in Emirates has also improved and rose by 6% (Issa 2015).
The ethnic and cultural difference is another foremost challenge for the HRM. When a
corporation grows out of the parent country its employee’s diversity also grows extraordinarily
due to increasing workforce, expanded human resource across all parameters. This results in
emergence of differences in the group of people as they have their own belief system, their own
taste and preferences and each individual is unique in their own distinct way. This diversity in
culture and ethnicity becomes an obstacle for the HRM to instill the work culture of the
organization (Choi and Rainey 2014). In order to tackle huge diversity in MNC like Google, has
created a Diversity Core Program which is a formal program in which the employees contribute
one-fifth of their time in certain initiatives which aims to attract more women and minorities so
as to create a welcome culture for the diverse workforce. Over 500 employees extending to more
than 53 offices have been a part of this Diversity Core. Aruna Kommu, an Indian who worked in
Google was a part of this program. She worked in this core to increase the visibility of women in
technology (Lauring 2013). Diversity creates a melting pot of ideas which has a positive effect

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on the adaptability of the workforce to address to the diverse problems of workplace. This
encourages employees to expand the thought process of the individuals across various cultures
and meet the dynamic demand of the customers, markets and other stakeholders. Variety in
viewpoints culminate into larger pool of experiences and ideas to cultivate and quickly adapt to
new circumstances. However, diversity creates various hassles as effective communication
between the workforces is difficult to attain when people are linguistically diverse. There is also
a prominent lack of freedom of speech as employees cannot freely express their opinions in the
fear of being judged by the larger audience. The cost of training also increase manifold as to
bring every individual on the same page, promote unified team with different personalities as it
becomes a challenging task to manage people from various nations. Diversity also promotes
segregation and isolation, informal social groups which creates a stigma towards a particular
community. This can impede the productivity of the employees and hamper the social
environment of the organization. It also breeds resistance towards a particular group of people,
causing friction in understanding and communication, hence organization like Google have come
with a Diversity Core program to tackle such issue.
These two challenges can be addressed by the diversity groups managing the diverse
people from different background so as to enhance coherence towards organization framework,
culture and policies (Cole and Salimath 2013). Implementation of successful and strategic
policies in the organization for diversity management has enabled the organization to overcome
the cross cultural barriers promptly. This also enables the employees to proactively participate
and bring homogeneity among the employees in moving towards a similar goal in synchronized
manner. This facilitates in rapid decision making, easing the business process, bring instant
solution to the complex problems and thus resolving issues of the company in an organized

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manner. More often this diversity is beneficial for the organization as in brings inquisitiveness
and creativity in bringing unique solutions to the company. It also helps the organization to
devolve a more strategic response to the host country, which can be brought about by the
employees who are more aware of the local culture and taste of the people (Berrey 2014). For
example, it enables an organization to diversify its product and services ranges according to the
needs of the people. The emerging societal problems unique to individual country can become a
potential opportunity for the company to enter and expand to bring potent solutions. The Human
Resource Management team needs to be more effective in tapping the huge potential who should
rather perceive these challenges as unique opportunities. When a diverse group form and work
towards a single objective, the only common thing among them is to fulfill the objective. This
commonness among the diverse people of a group enables them to become more competitive in
achieving the goals and objectives of the organization (Janssens and Zanoni 2014). Diversity in a
group is a blessing in disguise as it helps the organization to bring diversity, new ideas and
inculcate an inclusive spirit within the organization. This has been useful for the company to step
into some unexplored areas and come up with new ways to achieve a goal. The significance of
have an amplified effect on the progress of the organizational objectives (Benschop 2015).
Further these challenges of diversity management can be addressed by more inclusive
framework and policies which enables the employees to assimilate within the work culture more
proactively. An organization can reinforce various programs and policies to nullify the concerns
as done by some global companies such as Google, Emirates Airlines and many other
organizations are becoming exemplary examples of diversity management among the people
(Kakabadse et al. 2015). Further, an organization should welcome the vibrant and thriving
culture of a nation to prosper and build reputation on the firm grounds of inclusiveness and

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equality. This enhances the embracing culture which intends to fructify into financial gains for
the company and retaining many productive employees which is beneficial for the long term
sustainability of the company. An organization should adhere a more welcoming culture and
cultivate inclusive policies which fosters the spirit of globalization in letter and spirit (Kulik
2014). The employees of an organization indirectly or directly acts as an insignia of the
organization which can be made more progressive if the diverse people engage with each other
progressively and proactively.
A proper training should be held periodically and assessment should be done to chalk out
issues with more clarity. Further, organization can increase its recruitment of women as done by
Emirates Airlines which has now over 2.5% of the women in the managerial position of the
company. Similarly, the global giant, Apple has continued to hire the highest number of Asian,
black and Latino workers in the year of 2016 thus breaking the racial and gender disparity as
common stigma attached to many multinational corporations. The workforce of Apple all over
the world comprising 32% of female and 68% of male (Jauhari and Singh 2013). Though the
data is not much convincing but it reflects the improvement of 2 % in the number of women
acquiring the top managerial positions and ranks in the company in last three years. Nestle, a
global giant in food and milk products have strategically devolved diversity in the workforce by
the including people with disability on a priority.
Training and awareness of the people and inclusive programs, better accessibility of the
workplaces, and self-empowerment as the fundamental objectives in human resource
management. This has reinforced its human resource team to perform effectively towards
managing the diversity proactively (Bardoel et al. 2014). Coca-Cola, a beverage commercial
giant has tapped the potential diversity to reach out in the nook and corner of the world, thus,

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moving far ahead towards the gender parity and strike a right balance of workforce with relevant
policies and regulations. The company has employed people from all races, color and creed thus
creating a diverse spectrum of human resource which has been key to its massive expansion over
so many years. The diversity in the workforce has enabled the organization to strengthen a firm
ground of operations in several countries and penetrate in remote locations thus capturing a
larger consumers and greater market share.
A separate management allocation of time for the breaking the ice between the diverse
people and also to encourage better engagement among the employees thus acting as a major
motivating factor among the employees. McKinsey research project propounds that gender
diversity has been recognized as the foremost priority in the corporate agenda to have more of
women at the top ranked position. Gulf Cooperation Council also significantly emphasizes on the
importance of women in leadership roles to move towards gender balance in the entire region.
This can bring about an attitudinal change among the entire region which has often witnessed
restricted opportunities for women. Women contribution towards technical skills and knowledge
can bring about a transformational change in attitude towards women. Corporates are
encouraging greater role of diversity despite various challenges because in order to capture larger
market share and increase the business, an organization need to build subsidiaries in different
parts of the world. Diversity has been a foundation to enhance the reach of the organization to a
wider spectrum of people. People from different demographics and culture enables the company
to enter into inclusive policies of the business agenda. Multiculturalism in an organization allows
a company to cut across the geographical boundaries, and become more responsive to the rules,
laws and regulations of the country in which it is operating (Shemla et al. 2016). This has
strengthened customer connectivity in a foreign nation and cultivate a positive effect on the

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performance of the employees. With formal survey and robust feedback mechanism built within
the organization helps the business to leverage response of the employees with greater accuracy.
This not only helps in addressing the issues of diversity but also enables the workforce to work
towards with greater proficiency. Leading a diverse group of team also requires an efficient
leader to indulge into the local insights and bring about suitable practices which acts as driving
force for the workforce to achieve its respective goals and objectives more effectively. Greater
affinity with the employees and the business policies should be met with multiple and integrated
practices and measures which ensures participation of all people in cohesion and harmony.
Moreover, increasing global footprint enables a company to recruit people from different nations.
It is also a cost effective process, company has to compensate lesser thus helping to manage the
financial expenditure effectively.
Lastly, it can be concluded that diversity among various employees cannot be avoided,
however, with effective strategy by the human resource management, an organization can
overcome the various hassles of the arising amidst of different culture flourishing in the
organization. An organization should facilitate the growth of diversity in an organization as it
creates a positive public image, productivity increases manifold as human resource are more
attracted the organization. An organization success depends not only on the management and
productivity but also on the satisfaction it brings to the people working in it. This can only be
possible when the robust feedback mechanism is built to understand the issues of people and
they are sorted according to the needs of the people.

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