Fostering Diversity in the Workplace

This essay explores the current literature on the increasing international influence of employees’ diversity and provides recommendations that could assist with diversity in the workplace. It also examines how Lenovo has incorporated the concept of diversity among its employees.

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Fostering diversity in the workplace
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Abstract
Organizations are increasingly becoming diversified workplaces in the twenty-first
century. The essay will explore current literature on the increasing international influence of
employees’ diversity. It gives a model to facilitate discourse of the opportunities and problems
facing multiculturalism in workplaces. The essay then provides an overview of the methodology
employed and the reasons why secondary sources have been used. In the end, the paper gives
recommendations that could assist with diversity in the workplace. Lenovo, a technology giant,
strengthens the talent pool of its supply chain by concentrating on geographic, creative and
generational diversity. Lenovo’s approach to the development of leadership has led to a deep
bench of global savvy managers. The executives in supply chain encountered challenges with a
human resource with regards to diversity issues. The shortage of talent in supply chain and
difficulties in recruiting, advancing and sustaining such skills in a global phenomenon is a
sensitive matter for Lenovo. Recent trends in both the local and international workplaces
demonstrate the necessity for intercultural competence and research recommends explicitly the
need for business enterprises to groom their workforce for the globalized economy where the
growth of the business is predicted by the ability of individuals to communicate professionally
across diverse cultures (Harvey and Allard,2015). The presence of internationalization and its
effect on the generation of workers indicates that it has become an instrument for developing a
workplace that openly harbors workers from diverse nations into organizational environments.
Diversity here is seen as instrumental in strengthening both human and intellectual stock of
businesses through negotiation and effective communication (Martin,2014). Diversity has also
been noted to becoming a primary factor for selection, productivity and continued
competitiveness of enterprises. It is through a diverse workforce that unique advantages are

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yielded by developing new ideas and communication skills and also sharing different thoughts
that can lead to significant business solutions and better decision making.

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Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Diversity....................................................................................................................................4
2.1 How Diversity leads to innovation and change.................................................................5
2.2 Workplace diversity.............................................................................................................5
2.3 Workplace diversity and organizational performance.....................................................8
2.4 Workplace diversity and strategy.......................................................................................9
2.5 What organizations can practically do to tackle prejudice and discrimination?........10
2.5.1 Education.......................................................................................................................10
2.5.2 Diversity training programs that are short-term............................................................10
3.0 How Lenovo embraces diversity...........................................................................................10
4.0 Methodology...........................................................................................................................12
5.0 Findings..................................................................................................................................13
6.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................13
7.0 Recommendations..................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

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1.0 Introduction
Lenovo is a multinational company from China in the field of technology and has
headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville. Lenovo designs and produces personal computers,
smartphones, smart televisions, and server. The company operates in more than 60 nations and
sells its products across 160 countries. Lenovo was chosen due to its diversified workforce that
entails both the Chinese and Americans thus presenting two extreme cultures in the workplace.
The essay will look at diversity in workplace environments and how aspects such as prejudice
and discrimination can be managed at the organizational level. The essay will also examine how
Lenovo has incorporated the concept of diversity among its employees.
2.0 Diversity
Diversity refers to the integration of several differences in ethnicity, gender, ability,
lifestyle, and tenure. In another definition, diversity in workplace context entails more than
worker’s diverse demographic profile and assumes variations in both culture and intellectual
capability (Rijamampianina & Carmichael, 2005). It takes more than one dimension of demography
or ethnic diversity in yielding creativity that enables companies to raise their performance levels.
Diversity management, on the other hand, refers to the planned engagements on the organization
part in recruiting and maintaining a workforce with diverse backgrounds and skills (Basset-Jones,
2005). This is an activity generally found within the HRM training and development frameworks
of organizations.
2.1 How Diversity leads to innovation and change
The nexus between diversity, innovation, and change has led to academic researchers and
the business fraternity to seek elements and situations that lead to creativity among individuals.

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Creativity is a prerequisite for successful innovation (Basset-Jones, 2005). It is the increased
interest in the topic of creativity accompanied by several definitions that have seen polarization
around the themes such as creative individual, creative process, creative commodity, and creative
environment.
A diverse workforce has been associated with driving in innovation and giving a
company a competitive edge. As a company evolves its product or development team to
encompass individuals with varying perspectives and experiences, the company enhances its
ability to fathom the needs of its current and potential clients. Diversity begins to become expand
beyond the workforce context by looking at the customers’ needs, the challenges that need to be
managed currently and, in the future, and how the product can be used to help solve some of the
problems.
2.2 Workplace diversity
According to the recent studies conducted it has been found that workforce diversity has
led to the increased internationalization in the 21st century characterized by continuous mobility
of workers across different countries as well as autonomous nature of business enterprises (Okoro
& Washington, 2012). Internationalization presents the hurdle of communication for individuals
from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. For instance, some studies revealed for a majority
of individuals, communication encounters with individuals from diverse ethnic and regional
backgrounds arise mostly in the workplace (Lawton and Carlos,2016). Also, it has been found
that workplaces are the only places where people from diverse cultures converge and interact and
as such extends the relevancy of an organization. Improvements in communication entailing
supervisor and subordinate would compel workplaces to handle diversity and cultural variations
by promoting integration and equality in places of work.

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According to the Census Bureau in the U.S., it is anticipated by half of the 21st century,
the United States of America will not have a majority race. The non-Hispanics whites will be the
majority and will account for more than one half of the gross population. The Hispanics will
account for about one-quarter of the United State of America population. It is estimated that
African Americans will grow by about 13% while the Asian Americans are anticipated to
comprise the 8% of the U.S. citizenship (Okoro & Washington, 2012). It is estimated that only
approximately 33 million people out of the 278 million with occupations in the U.S. speak
Spanish while ten million speak a European dialect and close to eight million speak the Asian
language. Several researchers assert that a multicultural workforce has led to the outgrowth of
business internationalization that sophisticates the manner in which individuals from diverse
backgrounds in both organizational and learning contexts communicate in aspects of writing,
verbal and non-verbal contexts (Elliot and Carter,2017). Thus, organizations are now boosting
their diversity initiatives as they evaluate the advantages of multi-cultural and diverse
enterprises.
2.3 Workplace diversity and organizational performance
Companies are embracing the concept of diversity because diversity is a positive
motivational instrument that can be used in attracting and retaining the best employees as well as
raising the level of competitiveness at the organizational level (Warrier and Pandey,2018). For
instance, companies in the United States invest more than $8 billion yearly on initiatives
entailing diversity. Most of these companies have recognized the importance of sustaining a
labor force that demonstrates the diverse character of the modern society of the 21st century.
The practitioners and scholars recommend the use of education and communication as the
primary elements to change the behavior of their workers toward embracing diversity (Lopez-

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Rocha,2006). Also, a diverse workforce that can communicate effectively can gain from the
strengths, talents, and variations in the workplace by removing barriers to communication thus
developing their workforce to their optimal capacity, raising their productivity levels, supporting
innovation and facilitating problem resolution which leads to better customer service to diverse
customers (Riccucci,2018). Thus, the company will be taking advantage of such an opportunity
to promote future growth and establishment for a competitive edge.
2.4 Workplace diversity and strategy
Humanity can be said to be living in the age of globalization where there is a need for the
knowledge economy (Morgan and Vardy,2009). In this context, it is only business organizations
and institutions of higher learning that are in a position to embrace and support workforce
diversity will be successful. To ensure that their workplace is diverse and that small groups are
accorded respect, valued and given the desired recognition, universities and colleges will be able
to tap the collective knowledge of both their faculty and employees (Ang and Van Dyne,2015).
The marketers and marketing consultants also agree that important ideas for developing new
products were a product of subcultures. A good example is foods such as tortillas and pita among
others did not first come from America but rather sub-cultural communities.
2.5 What organizations can practically do to tackle prejudice and discrimination?
2.5.1 Education
Organizations can use prejudice-reduction initiatives that are educational to develop
contact theory by establishing activities such as cooperative learning, peer influence and
discussions, and instructions (Scottish Government, 2015). Educational initiatives focus on
advancing positive relations by challenging stereotypes and fallacies about external groups. This
entails bringing groups together so that they are in contact with each other in shared learning

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platforms that may be perceived to create tensions and differences. Other educational initiatives
may be based on extended contact philosophies for instance empathy and might assume
imagined contact. Such techniques may be helpful for the hidden minority groups and situations
where it would be impractical to use direct contact. A good example is when addressing
prejudice against the transgender individuals who account for a small part of the entire
population.
2.5.2 Diversity training programs that are short-term
The short-term and isolated training on diversity is aimed at targeting particular
populations. Such programs are conducted in corporate workplaces. Such kind of training
assumes many forms where some are instructional delivered through movies or customized
lectures while others encourage interactive activities for instance role plays and discourses. The
diversity program may entail group discourses about differences based on identical values to
those of educational initiatives such as overcoming ignorance, showing empathy for other
individuals all aimed at helping individuals subscribe to diversity in their workplaces.
3.0 How Lenovo embraces diversity
Lenovo also values other types of diversity that go far beyond geography. For instance,
there is generational diversity where close to 8% of the workforce are baby boomers, and this are
people born between 1945 and 1960 (Yang and Matz-Costa,2018). On the other hand,32% of
Lenovo’s employees are Generation X, and this is people born between 1961 and 1980 (Gooley,
2017). Lastly, more than 61% belong to the millennials, and these are people born after 1980. In
one of the confessions by a Brazilian plant manager, he stated that the millennials posed the most
significant challenge when it came to handling them. The millennials are said to be easily bored
and like multitasking and are also more productive when they have been assigned multiple

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projects that are different to handle. The millennials desire for flexibility leads to a big difference
in both job satisfaction and level of commitment when workdays are adjusted from 9 to 5. The
millennials have also been found to play by the rules only when such rules are defined and
particular expectations communicated clearly.
Lenovo also prioritizes on cognitive, skills and functional diversity in its international
supply chain workforce.32% of supply chain workers are engineers and have been valued for
their capacity to solve problems, evaluate supply chain networks and handle automation. The
other 14% concentrate on customer experience and their performance is evaluated based on
customer satisfaction. The other 56% belong to the foundational functions.
Lenovo develops managers and executives that are comfortable with the diversified
global nature of its employees through a mid-career rotational program that sees candidates sent
to work in places such as Europe, Asia, and America. Such a program assists participants to learn
how they can deal with the diversified workforce in different parts of the world they are sent as
they interact with people of different culture. The success of such a global program depends on
Lenovo’s attention to how the program is developed and candidates get selected. Sending
managers overseas comes with specific reasons, for instance, Lenovo may be aiming to build
relationships among its diversified workforce and also to help the company gain expertise in
some fields. In ensuring that the experience turns out successfully, participants are grouped with
a local mentor in overseas locations. The assignments range from eight to ten weeks, and this
gives enough time that such managers will be seen as colleagues and learn extensively but not
that long as it could turn out to be disruptive to both the individual and the local institution.
4.0 Methodology

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The research entailed the use of descriptive design where there was a description of the
variable diversity. The research used previously used data such as that by McKinsey that entailed
more than 350 companies on the topic of diversity to shed insight on the matter. Data collection
was based on observation from previous works conducted in other research studies. The research
used secondary sources such as journal articles which are part of scholarly articles, websites of
companies, blogs and to a large extent scholarly article. Such sources were employed as they are
an easy way to extract relevant information on the topic of diversity. Secondary sources are also
easily available making it easy to process all the information required.
5.0 Findings
Diversity has been found to generate higher returns. Research reveals that when a
business has more women in executive positions or a business that has ethnically diverse
individuals in the capacities of decision making, there are high chances of the business becoming
successful and benefiting from high profits. The 2015 McKinsey report on more than 350 public
companies, it was found that the upper quartile for ethnic and radical diversity with regards to
management were 35% more probable to generate financial returns that were above their
industry (Nester, 2018). The 2012 report by Credit Suisse revealed that large companies with at
least one woman serving in the board performed better than peer organizations that had no
women serving on the board by more than 25%. Based on a BCG study that was conducted by
the Technical University of Munich it revealed that organizations that had more than 20% of
women serving in management positions reaped more than 10% in innovative revenue. The
studies indicate that diversity through different perspectives translates to better problem-solving.
It is through better problem solving that better products are created alongside efficient product
development. All these translate to high revenues and profits.

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6.0 Conclusion
The changing business environment in the 21st century is changing rapidly. Thus,
managers and supervisors who are in positions of power and authority are diverse in age, gender
and ethnicity. The nature of responsibilities, skills, training, and duties they perform in the
various sections in their respective departments are also evolving due to demographic
differences. It is important to note that both domestic and international organizations aimed at
developing products that match the needs, tastes, and preferences of their diverse consumers
while ensuring that the diverse stakeholders’ benefit.
In analyzing the role of operations management in organizing factors of production to
produce goods and services, it crucial to fathom the essential aspect of workforce diversity and
effective communication in attaining the objectives of organizations. Based on the results it was
evident that there was a positive correlation between diversity in the workplace and
organizations’ outcomes and sustainability. A diversified workforce is vital in sustaining a
healthy work atmosphere that motivates employees to give outstanding performance and work
retention. Diversity initiatives that are both strategic and well-focused together with intercultural
communication workshops are recommended as a vital part of business orientations and retreats.
7.0 Recommendations
Companies should develop their diversity benchmarking instrument to assist in tracking
their progress. It would be essential to identify which components of diversity can be evaluated
and how data can be gathered systematically on both the existing and future workforce.
Companies should track information about employees such as where they are based

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geographically. Digging deeper into issues such as turnover by exploring why people exit the
company and who to get performance appraisal could be helpful.
Managers should also prioritize their prevailing approach with regards to how diversity
and inclusion impact on the business strategy. For instance, it will be important to consider if the
composition of the executive team represents the company’s customer base. This could
instrumental in incentivizing particular policies and milestones.
Managers should publicize diversity and inclusion policies by encouraging teams to be vocal
about policies and milestones the company has established and review how workers attitude and
behaviors are changing with regards to diversity.

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