Charles Darwin University - Diversity in BHP Billiton Essay

This essay examines the issue of workplace diversity, specifically focusing on gender diversity within BHP Billiton Ltd, a major mining company operating in Australia. The essay explores the importance of diversity in business, including its impact on innovation, employee performance, and satisfaction. It identifies key issues like acceptance, ethical and cultural differences, gender inequality, and the generation gap within the workplace. The analysis of BHP Billiton highlights the company's challenges related to gender equality, particularly the underrepresentation of women in the workforce and senior positions. The essay discusses the company's sustainability practices, corrective actions, and aspirational goals, such as achieving gender balance by 2025. It suggests strategies for improving diversity, including ensuring equal opportunities and treatment, fostering collaboration, and leveraging the attractiveness of the mining industry to a diverse range of people. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of diversity in attracting employees and customers and enhancing business performance, while also acknowledging the company's ongoing efforts to address gender inequality.

Running head: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Management Accounting
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
In a business organization, diversity places a vital role in the business structure
of the organization and the same is considered while hiring new employees to the
organization. Diversity provides a wide range of variety to the organization on the basis
of talent as well culture and ethnicity. The company which is considered for this
assessment is BHP Billiton ltd which is engaged in mining sector and it is also regarded
as one of the largest mining companies which operates in Australia. The company is
dedicated towards maintaining sustainability in the operations of the business and
effectively. Workplace diversity fosters mutual respect among employees. It also allows
the management of the company to effectively pool talents and skill workers so that an
appropriate team can be formed. In addition to this, gender diversity also promotes
equality among the workers and helps in conducting the operations of the business in a
collaborate manner.
The analysis for BHP Billiton is taken considering the issue which the company is
subjected to in terms of gender diversity in hiring and promotion of the employees. In
addition to this, the discussion would also highlight the corrective actions which is taken
by the management of BHP Billiton ltd so that such an instance does not take place in
future.
Discussion
In a business, all the major decisions regarding the operations which is to be
conducted by the business are taken considering all the factors which affects the
operations. It is to be noted that diversity is one of the factors which affects the business
as the same is related to employee performance and retention in a business. It is to be
noted that diversity in a business brings out great values for the business as it not only
promotes innovation but also drives the employees to perform better and also promotes
employee satisfaction.
Some of the common issues which are faced by businesses in relation to
workplace diversity are explained below in details:

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 Acceptance and Respect: A fundamental value in a work place is maintaining
respect for seniors and also among the employees. Conflicts generally arises
when there is a problem in acceptance of diverse culture. Diversity training will
help employees understand, accept, and respect each’s other’s differences.
 Ethical and Cultural Difference: In a workplace, it is common to see a
difference of ethnic and cultural differences and this sometimes results in
conflicts between employees or different class of employees.
 Gender Equality: This is a major issue which is found in any workplace and the
same refers to unequal treatment of the employees due to gender difference.
This is a reason which affects the business and the company can lose out on
skilled employees of the business (BHP. 2018). In addition to this, in some
companies it has also been seen that man gets a comparatively higher income
which further widens the inequality. Moreover, such gender inequality can also
be witnessed in times of promotion or appraisal of the employees.
 Generation Gap: The workplace is made up of both young employees and the
ones which have most experiences. This creates a gap in generation in the
workplace as it is very difficult for the experienced employees to leave as they
cannot make necessary adjustments. In larger corporations, there are more
diversified age groups, from teenagers to senior citizen which have faced similar
problems face the same problems. There might arise a situation where there is a
conflict been young generation and the experienced personnel’s which needs to
be appropriately managed by the management of the company.
The above mentioned factors are some of the significant factors which affects he
work place diversity inn any business and the management needs to make plances In
the case of BHP Billiton ltd, the management follows an appropriate sustainability
practices and also considers the needs of the employees effectively. One of the major
issues which is recognised from the business of BHP Billiton ltd is gender equality in the
workplace. The percentage of women employee who are employed are not in
appropriate numbers in comparison to male employees. In addition to this, few women
employees are in senior position in the company (Noland, Moran and Kotschwar 2016).
This shows that there is serious violation of gender equality in the business (Cumming,

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Leung. and Rui 2015). This shows that there are instances of unequal treatment by the
management which needs to be improved. Therefore, it is imperative from the point of
view of the management, that changes need to be made in the diversity policies which
are followed by the business.
As per the nature of the business, mining and exploration forms a major part of
the operations of the business which requires physical labour and therefore there has
been an issue with gender equality in the business operations. Some steps are already
taken by the management of BHP Billiton ltd for ensuring that the proper gender
diversity is maintained in the business (Forbes.com. 2019). An example can be given
from the sustainability report which is prepared by BHP Billiton ltd which shows that the
management has hired a women employee as an extraction equipment operator at
Minera Escondida. In addition to this the management of the company has taken all the
necessary steps in inviting diverse employees so that a proper work force can be
established by the management of the company.
Building a more diverse workforce through engagement with our contractors and
labour suppliers is an important part of our inclusion and diversity strategy. The
management of the company realizes that maximum of the workforce which is
employed with the company are contractors and therefore diversity policies are
established considering such factors itself. The company is trying to appropriately
balance the genders equity criteria and also maintain a certain level of efficiency in the
operations of the business (Nanda 2014).
After considering the issue which is faced by the management of BHP Billiton ltd,
the management has formulated a new plan for ensuring the diversity is maintained in
the business. In order to effectively combat the diversity, issue the management of the
company has set an aspirational goal to achieve gender balance across BHP by 2025.
The following measures can be taken by the management of BHP Billiton ltd for
improving the diversity situation of the business and thereby improving the overall
business structure (Sila, Gonzalez. and Hagendorff, 2016).

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 The management needs to ensure that equal treatment and opportunity is
available for all the employees of the company. As per the estimation of the
management of BHP Billiton ltd, the business would be employment 50% women
in their workforce and the aim of the business is to achieve this by 2025 (Ft.com.
2019).
 Proper diversity practices can bring about unity in the operations of the business
and also ensure that all the employees are working in a collaborative manner.
 In the mining business, brand and industry are attractive to a diverse range of
people and therefore the business would benefit
The management of BHP Billiton ltd is dedicated in resolving the gender inequality
issue which is faced by the business and are implementing reforms for such a purpose.
As per the information which is available from the official website of the company, the
management promises to have a better gender balance by the end of 2025.
As per the extract of an article which is presented above, it is confirmed that the
management of BHP Billiton ltd aims to increase the hiring process for women so that a
level of gender balance in maintained in the workplace. The aim of the management is
to get the female workforce of the company to at least 50% so that there is gender
diversity in the business and work can be carried out in a collaborative manner.
Conclusion
The above discussion effectively shows the role of diversity in a business and
especially gender diversity. The discussion above also shows how diversity is important
in attracting employees and customers which would enhance the performance of the

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business. In this assessment, the business of BHP Billiton is considered which is facing
a problem of unequal treatment for any activity of the business. The management needs
to formulate appropriate strategies so that a level of diversity can be maintained in the
business organization. As per the information which is available from the company, the
management has already made several improvements in this aspect and more
improvements are expected to come in near future.

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Reference
BHP. (2018). Supporting diversity at our operations. [online] Available at:
https://www.bhp.com/community/case-studies/2018/09/supporting-diversity-at-our-
operations [Accessed 19 Apr. 2019].
Cumming, D., Leung, T.Y. and Rui, O., 2015. Gender diversity and securities
fraud. Academy of management Journal, 58(5), pp.1572-1593.
Forbes.com. (2019). Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard
To Achieve. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2018/08/22/why-workplace-diversity-is-so-
important-and-why-its-so-hard-to-achieve/#53d250453096 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2019].
Ft.com. (2019). BHP on track to achieve 50% female workforce by 2025 | Financial
Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/063eb6bc-d10f-11e8-a9f2-
7574db66bcd5 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2019].
Nanda, S., 2014. Gender diversity: Crosscultural variations. Waveland Press.
Noland, M., Moran, T. and Kotschwar, B.R., 2016. Is gender diversity profitable?
Evidence from a global survey. Peterson Institute for International Economics Working
Paper, (16-3).
Sila, V., Gonzalez, A. and Hagendorff, J., 2016. Women on board: Does boardroom
gender diversity affect firm risk?. Journal of Corporate Finance, 36, pp.26-53.