Effective Management of Diversity in Service Organizations

This article discusses the importance of effective management of diversity in service organizations. It provides ten resources or methods which could assist service organisations in embracing and responding to diversity which creates beneficial opportunities for them. The resources include establishing diversity goals and vision, employee engagement, active engagement, becoming culturally competent, communication strategy, diversity training, cultural support in care plans, welcoming diverse ideas, avoiding stereotyping, and strict actions. The article also provides references for further reading.

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Explain Diversity

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In the service industry, organisations deal with employees and customers from different
cultures which increase the importance of effective management of diversity. The
corporations should focus on implementing policies which are focused on managing
diversity in the workplace. While implementing these policies, there are various resources
which can assist companies in promoting diversity practices. Following are ten resources or
methods which could assist service organisations in embracing and responding to diversity
which creates beneficial opportunities for them.
1. Establishing diversity goals and vision
Service organisations should know their diversity goals, and they should implement diversity
policies into their vision in order to achieve such goals. The companies should make a
commitment to understanding how diversity impacts their business and create policies to
address the same (Barak, 2016).
2. Employee engagement
In order to embrace diversity, the corporations should participate in employee engagement
surveys to learn about their cultures. They should establish a comfortable working
environment by engaging with employees to ensure that are not discriminated (Downey et
al., 2015).
3. Active engagement
Effective engage in the diversity effort should be mandatory in the organisation. The top-
level management should actively engage in the diversity process to ensure that they
understand the challenges faced by employees who belong from different cultures.
4. Becoming culturally competent
In order to become culturally competent, the corporations should take time to learn about
different cultures, religions, backgrounds, and races of employees. Service organisations
should also learn about their customers’ culture to ensure that they are not disrespectful.
5. Communication strategy

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The companies should implement effective communication strategy in which they should
establish different diversity channels through which employees and even customers can
directly file their complaint about the discrimination which they face based on their culture,
race, or colour.
6. Diversity training
Service organisations should provide diversity training to their staff members which will
enable them to ensure that they embrace diversity in the workplace. The training will also
assist employees in effectively responding to customer who is from different culture
(Bezrukova, Jehn and Spell, 2012).
7. Cultural support in care plans
Services organisations should develop different care plans which are compatible with
client’s community affiliations. These care plans should cater to the needs of employees and
customer who are from other cultures to avoid discrimination.
8. Welcoming diverse ideas
Service organisations should encourage its employees to provide ideas regarding diversity in
the workplace which assist them in driving positive change in the workplace. By welcoming
diverse ideas, people from different cultures will be able to contribute different ideas in
order to embrace diversity in the organisation positively.
9. Avoid stereotyping
Stereotyping should be avoided at the workplace and while interacting with employees.
Generally, people stereotype because they did not have knowledge of another person’s
culture or religion. Service organisations should prohibit stereotyping, and they should
punish individuals who engage in such practices.
10. Strict actions
Organisations should take strict actions against individuals in the company who violate the
diversity policies or engage in unfair practices in order to discriminate with employees who

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are from other cultures. Strict actions should include suspension from work, dismissal, or
financial penalties (Harvey and Allard, 2015).

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References
Barak, M.E.M. (2016) Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. California:
Sage Publications.
Bezrukova, K., Jehn, K.A. and Spell, C.S. (2012) Reviewing diversity training: Where we have
been and where we should go. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 11(2),
pp.207-227.
Downey, S.N., van der Werff, L., Thomas, K.M. and Plaut, V.C. (2015) The role of diversity
practices and inclusion in promoting trust and employee engagement. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 45(1), pp.35-44.
Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M. (2015) Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases,
and exercises. London: Pearson.