Advert Co.: Applying Malik's Model to Workplace Diversity

This report addresses workplace diversity issues at Advert Co., an advertising company in the UAE, focusing on a conflict arising from differing leave policies for Muslim and non-Muslim employees. The report identifies the core issues as inadequate implementation of workforce diversity, lack of transparent workplace policies, and indecisiveness from management. To resolve these issues, the report suggests using Malik's Standard Model of Effectiveness, emphasizing tasks, tools, principles, and responsibilities. Key actions include implementing a rotational leave policy, communicating clear and understandable policies, fostering a zero-tolerance policy for cultural biases, and celebrating cultural diversity through events. The report also highlights the importance of access and equity, employee welfare, and respecting diversity in the workplace to create a more inclusive and productive environment. Ultimately, the report argues that by understanding and addressing diversity issues through the Standard Model of Effectiveness, Advert Co. can improve organizational effectiveness and maintain professionalism.

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Workplace diversity is considered to be an important aspect that most of the
organisations put focus on in order to maintain an effective production (Al-Jenaibi 2017).
However, there are lots of cases where the companies are failed to implement stern measures to
continue the workplace diversity. In this regard, the purpose of this report is to figure out the
workplace diversity issues and resolve the issue with the help of Malik's Standard Model of
Effectiveness. Moreover, the discussion puts emphasis on the case of Advert Co. Company that
is an advertise company in UAE and as a manager of that company it is my responsibility to deal
with the situation.
The Advert Co. Company was established in the earlier phase of 2009 and considered to
be a SME that managing diversity in workplace. The Company has an employee strength of 50
and they are belonged to different religious and cultural background. Most of the employees are
Muslim but there are also some Christian and non-Muslim employees in the organisation.
Recently, the company was facing an issue regarding the leave policy of the employees. The
Company propose a Friday leave for all the employees where as they had to work in Sunday. The
non-Islamic employees were not acquainted with such policy as during the recruitment they were
not informed with such measures. They demanded a Sunday leave as per the international norms.
Moreover, the non-Islamic employees tried to get in touch with the management in order to
ventilate their problems but the management still did not round up any measure in this regard.
In this context, there are three typical issues that are emerged by evaluating the case
study. The issues are as follows,
The workforce diversity is not rightly implemented in the Advert Co. Company because the
management took inadequate measures to create a diverse workforce. The leave policy in Friday

2PRESENTATION
is strictly for the Muslim employees to conduct their prayers whereas there is no such
opportunity for the Christian employees to go to church in Saturday or Sunday. Besides this, it is
important for the Advert Co. to deal frame its workplace policy more transparent and acute. In
this context, informing all the employees about the new policies is required that the organisation
failed to follow. As a matter of fact, indecision from the end of the management is also a big
issue for the Advert Co. In addition to this, the Advert Co. management is suffering with pro-
active attitude regarding creating a better workplace environment for the employees and in case
of any issues the management has to take initiatives to resolve the issue as soon as possible. In
fact, having an in-depth understanding of the workplace diversity is absent in case of the Advert
Co. management.
In order to resolve the issue of cultural diversity, the management could takes some
significant actions. The very first tool in the four elements of professionalism is that of the tasks
(Malik, Javed and Hassan 2017). It is to note that communication is the key. Hence, the very first
task of the management is to implement a rotational leave policy for the employees so that they
could take their week offs on any two days of the week they want to. The management must
communicate with the employees with clear and understandable policies and the company ethos
which each and every one (Lewis and Mills 2018). It should incorporate a zero tolerance policies
in order to reduce the chances of such practices in the work place that could hurt the religious or
cultural sentiments of the workers. Furthermore, management could take initiatives in creating
opportunities for the parties in order to validate the concerns of the employees. This would
include the constructive expression and recognition of the differences. Secondly, the tools that it
could use in order to mitigate this issue is that of emails. Through the help of emails, the
management team could send the rules and policies that clearly describes that unethical and

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cultural biases would not be tolerated in the workplace. The management should confront the
cultural discrimination in the workplace and must show zero tolerance for it. They could also
conduct some yearly programs in which the cultural diversity in the workplace would be
celebrated. In this way, they could highlight the presence of the different cultures in the
workplace as well as foster the understanding by means of cultural events. After all,
understanding builds up tolerance (Khor 2017). Thirdly, in order to resolve cultural barriers in
the workplace, the management could make use of certain principles in order to mitigate such
issues and bridge the communication gaps prevailing. These principles are of 1) access and
equity, 2) the interests and welfare of the employee are paramount and, 3) respecting and valuing
diversity in the workplace. Principles of equity and access are the core of inclusive society in
which all the members would be able to participate to their fullest and the company services
meet the requirements of the employees who are entitled to them (Hiteva and Sovacool 2017).
Furthermore, valuing and respecting cultural diversity in the workplace would help the
employees in believing that there is equality in the workplace and no one is superior to the other.
Moreover, the management should also takes measures keeping in mind that the measures are for
the welfare of the employees and they are similar to their interests. Lastly, it falls under the
responsibilities of the managers to welcome, celebrate and encourage cultural diversity in the
workplace (Hajro, Gibson and Pudelko 2017). It is the duty of the human resource managers to
ensure that none of the employees become non-productive in the workplace for any such issues
that is unjust and unethical.
It can be argued the workplace diversity is a complex but effective measure to increase
the productivity of a company. However, it is imperative for the company management to get a
complete understanding of the diversity issues. The Standard Model of Effectiveness tries to

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provide a better solution by putting emphasis on the tasks, tools, principles and responsibility of
the management. Henceforth it can be argued that the role Standard Model of Effectiveness is
very effective to mitigate the problem regarding organizational effectiveness and provide a
solution so that it can maintain professionalism inside Advert Co.

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Reference
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Hajro, A., Gibson, C.B. and Pudelko, M., 2017. Knowledge exchange processes in multicultural
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Khor, P., 2017. A phenomenological study of the lived experiences of the Generation X and Y
Entrepreneurs. Sinergi: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Manajemen, 7(2).
Lewis, D. and Mills, G.R., 2018. The Bullseye Principle: Mastering Intention-based
Communication to Collaborate, Execute, and Succeed. John Wiley & Sons.
Malik, M., 2016. Assessment of a professional development program on adult learning
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