Diversity at Workplace: Issues and Management Approaches

Running Head: MANAGEMENT
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Management
4/11/2019

MANAGEMENT
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The essay brings about the discussion on the topic ‘diversity at workplace’
and the other related issues and aspects affecting the overall performance of the
organisations. To state about diversity, it can be stated that diversity at workplace is
important for the employees as it manifests great reputation of the firm, leading to
the increase in profitability. An increase in the profitability leads to the increased
opportunities for the workers or employees in the organisation. Therefore, the
readers will gain an understanding of the diversity issues, gender related issues and
other management approaches, as cultural diversity affects the organisation in
numerous ways. For exploring the concept and importance of diversity, ‘Woolworths’
has been taken as the company. Thus, in the later part of the essay the discussion
will mention how the company contributes towards addressing the gender diversity
issues.
Diversity Issues
Organisational diversity is defined as the total framework of the employee
workforce and the amount of diversity included in the organisation. Diversity here
mean to various differences in personal traits of employees in the organisation, i.e.
age, race, gender, status, religion, education, and many other.
Patrick and Kumar (2012) stated that diversity management is the process
directed towards creating a positive work environment wherein the individuals from
different culture work together. It has been analysed that diversity management
emphasizes aspect of organisational culture, human resource management, and
organisational practices. However, a number of potential barriers or issues of
diversity within workplace are also recognised which consists of ethnic and cultural
differences, gender inequality, physical and mental disabilities, language and
communication, and others. One of the most common issues has observed as
‘gender equality’ amongst the other diversity issues in the organisations.
Language or communication barriers acts as other major barrier to diversity at
workplace, as people from different countries or regions are recruited in the
organisation. This further leads to the problem of miscommunication amongst the
workers or employees in the organisation, and loss of productivity affecting the
process of goal attainment. However, it has been analysed that the aspects of
cultural diversity affects the businesses in number of ways, inclusive of the staff

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recruitment/ retention, management styles and decision-making processes affecting
organisational relationships.
An organisation must consider the need, value, and importance of diversity at
workplace and focus on the removal of barriers affecting employees. Managing
diversity or issues related to diversity at workplace presents a number of challenges
and problems for HR professionals, and managers. Incorporating diverse people
and their varied perspectives has become a major concern for the organisations. The
repercussions for not managing diversity and issues associated will lead to lack of
skills, competencies, and interests in employees. This will increase issues of
employee turnover, commitment and thereby reduce the performance of employees
in the organisation (Patrick & Kumar, 2012).
Looking at the above context it can be stated that the organisations require
managers to acquire essential training to recruit suitable candidates, and deal with
any emerging diversity issues within organisation. This will facilitate in effective
management of diversity related issues amongst the workforce employees in the
organisation, and ensuring cooperation and commitment of employees. Hence, after
an analysis of the above section, it can be stated that the readers will further gain
knowledge regarding the gender diversity issue amongst employees within
organisations (Ozturk & Tatli, 2016).
Gender diversity issues
The term gender diversity refers to the equitable or fair representation of the
people belonging to different genders. It almost states to an equal ratio of men and
women within workplace. The factor of gender diversity plays a vital role in any
organisation as equal representation of women in the workplace may lead to positive
effects in the organisational performance. If an organisation lacks in assuring
gender diversity, than it is likely to be affected in performance. The research studies
have revealed the fact that ‘gender inequality’ remains to be a major diversity issue
in the Australian organisations. Many of the men and women do not experiences
gender equality in the workplace, and this is a major factor affecting their
performance (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). The issue of gender inequality is
observed in varied aspects such as pay, reward, recognition, and other benefits or
incentives provided to the employees. Therefore, it has discovered that the ‘gender