Developing an Effective Diversity and Inclusion Policy at ABC Pty Ltd

The report discusses the necessity of implementing a structured diversity and inclusion policy for ABC Pty Ltd to improve organizational effectiveness. It highlights various aspects such as generational issues in the workplace, employee empowerment, job rotation benefits, and addressing team conflicts. The report draws on theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, including works by Barak (2016) on managing diversity and Bennett et al. (2012) on generational impacts in the workplace. By integrating these insights with practical HR strategies such as those suggested by Boswell et al. (2012), ABC Pty Ltd can foster a more inclusive environment that enhances employee motivation, reduces role ambiguity, and improves team cohesion. Furthermore, employee empowerment models proposed by Fernandez and Moldogaziev (2013) are examined for their potential to improve performance outcomes. The report concludes with strategic recommendations aimed at establishing an effective diversity policy that not only meets the current organizational needs but also aligns with future goals, ensuring sustained success in a competitive business environment.

Running head: DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATION
Diversity in organization
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the various strategies in order to overcome the issues
being faced by ABC Pty ltd. They are facing the issues related to the diversity and inclusion of
their employees. Thus, various potential approaches are being discussed in this report, which can
help in overcome the issues. In addition, an effective and ideal implementation plan has also
been discussed. This report concludes that effective implementation of the discussed strategies
will help ABC Pty ltd to have an effective diversity and inclusion policy for their internal
stakeholders.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Instances of diversity issues.............................................................................................................4
Available approaches to overcome diversity issues........................................................................4
Employee oriented approaches....................................................................................................5
Management oriented approaches...............................................................................................6
Recommended strategy....................................................................................................................7
Implementation plan of the strategy................................................................................................8
Strategic outcome............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
For the contemporary business organizations, maintaining the diversity in the
organizations is one of the key issues being faced. This is due to the reason that, the majority of
the contemporary business organizations are having diversified workforce belonging from
different cultural and social backgrounds (Barak 2016). Thus, it is important to determine the
requirement of the employees from different communities effectively along with providing
effective and ideal working environment to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of the
employees. Thus, contemporary business organizations should have to initiate various
approaches in order to prevent the issues related to diversity.
ABC Pty ltd is one of the prominent business organizations in Australia operating in the
logistics industry. They are also having diverse and sound number of human resources of more
than 3000 employees. However, in the recent time, they are facing issues related to diversity in
the workforce. The key issues that they are facing are the conflict in the teamwork and lack of
effective communication channel to overcome it (Leo et al. 2015). Due to this reason, they are
gradually losing their competitiveness in the market. This is due to the fact that, conflict and
ineffective communication in the organization is reducing the effectiveness and productivity of
the employees. In addition, lack of effective communication channel is refraining them in
determining the requirement of the employees.
This report will discuss about the various strategies in order to overcome the identified
issue. In addition, few effective strategies will be recommended to overcome the identified
issues. An ideal implementing policy will also be discussed in relation to the selected strategies.

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The potential strategic outcome will be discussed in order to gauge the effectiveness of the
chosen strategy.
Instances of diversity issues
Other than the ABC Pty ltd, there are various other business organizations, which are
facing the issues related to diversity in workforce. According to Bennett, Pitt and Price (2012),
one of the business organizations facing the diversity issues is the Berkshire Hathaway. This
organization is being owned by Warren Buffet. However, they are being ranked as the worst
organization in terms of the workplace diversity according to S&P. according to the authors; they
are mainly facing the issues related to the unfair and unequal treatment to the employees
belonging from the minority communities. Thus, in the case of the appointment or promotion in
the senior level management, minority communities are not being given preferences. Moreover,
they are also facing the issues related to gender diversity due to the fact that, female
representation is less in their organization (Joecks, Pull and Vetter 2013). However, in the recent
times they are taking steps in increasing the female representation in their organization.
From the above stated issues, there are various adverse implications being faced by
Berkshire Hathaway. As stated by the authors, one of the key implications being faced by them is
the lack of motivation of the employees belonging from the minority communities. This is due to
the reason that, according to the authors, employees from the minority communities are having
lower morale, which further affecting their productivity in the workplace.

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Available approaches to overcome diversity issues
There mainly two types of approaches being available for ABC Pty ltd in order to
overcome their employee issues. These approaches include employee approaches and
management approaches. Employees are also being expected that they will contribute in
marinating the diversity in the organizations. Thus, there are various responsibilities for the
employees also to be accomplished.
Employee oriented approaches
 The higher management in ABC Pty ltd is having the responsibility of sharing and
communicating the vision related to diversity to the employees. However, it is the
employees who implement the vision in the real situation. Thus, it is the responsibility of
the employees to have the clear idea about the diversity policy of the organization and
implementing it in the workplace.
 ABC Pty ltd initiates employee feedback mechanism in order to gain feedback in the
forms of suggestion and opinions. Thus, it is the responsibility of the employees to
provide accurate and honest feedback to the organization (Sahoo and Mishra 2012). The
more accurate feedback they will provide, the more involved they will be in the
organization and it will help the organization to modify their existing policy accordingly.
It will also help the organization to identify any issues if the employees honestly
communicate their grievances.
 It is one of the key responsibilities of the employees to effectively indulge in discussion
with their colleagues belonging from different cultures and society. It will help them to
get more close to other cultures and thus the mutual understanding between the
employees will get enhanced (D’Arcy, Herath and Shoss 2014). This is due to the fact

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that, it is the responsibility of the employees to initiate the relationship among
themselves, rather than the higher management who will only initiate the strategies.
Management oriented approaches
 Initiation of the effective and extensive inclusion strategy covering all the internal
stakeholders will help the organization to have a singular approach in diversity policies.
The policy should be clear and effective, which will have positive implications on the
internal stakeholders.
 Initiation of the training for the employees should taken by the management of ABC Pty
ltd. It will help the employees to be trained about the diversity policy of the organization
along with having the awareness about the potential benefits of the diversified workforce
(Elnaga and Imran 2013).
 Recruitment selection policy is another dimension in inclusion policy. This is due to the
reason that, the potential candidates should be selected in accordance to the
organizational culture (Hogan and Coote 2014). Prior to the selection of the employees, it
is to be seen that whether the employees can be compatible with the existing diversity
policy of the organization. Thus, the more compatible employees will be with the existing
organizational culture, the more will be the effectiveness of the diversity policy in the
organization.
 Effective communication policy is one of the key approaches for higher management to
reduce the issues regarding the diversity in the organization. Moreover, the
communication channel should be a two way process (Guffey and Loewy 2012). This is
due to the reason that, two ways process of the communication channel will help both the
upper level management and the employees to effectively communicate with one another.

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Thus, the more effective will be the channel of communication, the more efficiently the
upper level management can determine the requirement of the employees and vice versa.
Recommended strategy
All the above discussed strategies are effective based on the different situations that will
be faced by ABC Pty ltd. However, there is a need of having effective strategy of diversity in the
organization in order to maintain the diversity and inclusion of the employees. Thus, from the
above discussed approaches, the first recommended step should be the effective process of
recruitment (Brewster and Hegewisch 2017). This is due to the reason that, all the human
resource related activities will start from the recruitment and selection. Thus, it is the
responsibility of the human resource department of ABC Pty ltd to select the new employees on
the basis of the organizational requirement and culture. This will enable the new employees to be
aware about the diversity in the organization and accordingly they will work in their workplace.
The next step will be the empowerment of the employees (Fernandez and Moldogaziev
2013). This is important due to the reason that, the more empowered will be the employees, the
more they will be equipped to manage and control the conflict in the organization. Job rotation
will be an effective option for employee empowerment. According to the concept of job rotation,
all the employees are being given different job in their workplace in rotational process (Rashki,
Hasanqasemi and Mazidi 2014). Thus, this process will help the employees to have the fair idea
about the job roles of their colleagues. In addition, it will enable them to enhance their
connectivity with other employees in the organization. Thus, the mutual understanding between
the employees will be more and issues related to diversity will be less.

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The next step will be the maintenance of the fair and equality in the workforce. This is
due to the reason that, maintaining the fairness and equality among the employees is having
much importance in maintaining the diversity of the employees. As discussed earlier, the key
issue for ABC Pty ltd is the conflict among the employees. However, one of the key reasons for
the generation of the conflict among the employees is the unfair treatment by the upper level
management. In the case of ABC Pty ltd, they are having more than 3000 employees and
moreover all the employees are belonging from different social and cultural backgrounds. Thus,
providing fair or biased treatment to a particular section of the employees will have adverse
impact on the other sections. Eventually it will create conflict among the employees (Mowday,
Porter and Steers 2013). Thus, it is important for the upper level management to provide fairness
and equality in maintaining the diverse workforce.
Implementation plan of the strategy
The strategies being discussed above should be implemented in the organization
effectively and due to that, a proper implementation plan is required. The implementation plan
should be effective in order to adhere to the legal and ethical considerations. The first will be to
follow the ethics in the process of recruitment and selection (Trevino and Nelson 2016). This is
due to the fact that, if the ethics principles are not being followed, then the organizational
objective of having the right candidate will not be achieved. Moreover, initiation of the
inequality and fairness in the diversity management also related to the ethical principles. Thus, it
is the responsibility of the human resource department of ABC Pty ltd to adhere to the ethical
principles in managing the diversified workforce.

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Legal considerations should also be adhered due to reason that, management of the
diversified workforce is related to the welfare of the employees. As discussed in the case of
Berkshire Hathaway, welfare of the employees is being compromised, which caused adverse
impact on the effectiveness and performance of the employees. Moreover, unequal
representation of the communities and gender inequality will further attract legal issues for the
organization.
Strategic outcome
The above discussed strategy will effectively meet the organizational strategic goal due to
the reason that the strategy is being designed covering all the associated stakeholders of ABC Pty
ltd along with covering all the aspects. The organizational strategy of ABC Pty ltd states having
the diversified employees in the workforce. Thus, recruitment of the employees from different
cultural and social backgrounds will help them to attain the objective of diversity in the
workforce. In addition, maintenance of equality and fairness will help the organization to attain
the organizational strategy of enhancing the effectiveness and morale of the employees (Boswell,
Colvin and Darnold 2012). The more ethical principles will be followed by the senior
management in managing the employees, the more will be the motivation and satisfaction level
of the employees.
According to Patrick and Kumar (2012), effective implementation of the above discussed
strategy will help them to enhance their organizational productivity. The authors have given the
example of Coca cola. According to them, Coca cola is also having diversity in their global
operations. However, due to the effectiveness of their diversity management policy, they are

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being able to gain competitive advantages in the market along with effectively attaining their
organizational goal.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that, the above discussed strategy in this report will help ABC
Pty ltd to have an effective diversity and inclusion policy for their internal stakeholders.
Moreover, the strategy being discussed in this report has covered all the related aspects along
with considering all the associated stakeholders. This report have also discussed about various
probable approaches, which may be effective depending on the situation to be faced. Thus, it can
be expected that proper and suitable implementation of the above discussed policies will help
ABC Pty ltd to enhance their organizational effectiveness along with maintaining the diversity
and inclusion in the organization.

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Reference
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