BUMGT1501 Management Principles: Analyzing Diversity Case Study

This case study analysis focuses on the challenges and strategies involved in managing a culturally diverse workforce, particularly in the context of a production facility employing Somalian refugees. The report evaluates the impact of external factors such as social, economic, and religious considerations on the organization's operations. It also assesses the effectiveness of management functions like organizing and coordinating in addressing the needs of diverse employees while maintaining productivity. The analysis identifies potential issues arising from accommodating religious practices and proposes recommendations such as improving communication, adjusting working hours, and exploring alternative labor solutions to ensure both employee satisfaction and organizational sustainability. This document is available on Desklib, where students can find a variety of solved assignments and past papers.

Case Study Analysis
Case Study Analysis
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Case Study Analysis
Executive Summary
This reported deal with the understanding of how an organization work with employees of
cultural diversity. In an organizational setup, there are high chances that certain adjustments
are to be made to ensure that the employees belonging to different cultural background feel
welcomed. However, this should not reflect negatively on the growth of the company.
This case study focuses on a manager Frank of a production facility and how he aims to
ensure that the new culturally diverse affordable labour hired by them is welcomed and
retained, but also does not become difficult for the company to manage in the longer run.
The report will discuss how these employee demands will affect the production in the
company, and how Frank will have to take care of the situation.

Case Study Analysis
Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
Case Study................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................8

Case Study Analysis
Introduction
When working with a diverse workforce, it is essential to give importance to their beliefs and
practices in order to ensure workplace peace. However, promoting diversity and inclusion
should not come in the way of the organization’s operational needs and future growth
(Saxena, 2014)
In the given case study, the focus will be on Frank, the manager for the production area of an
organization and how he will balance the affordable Somalian labour along with their
religious requirements at the factory place, and ensure that the organization is sustainable to
the best possible extent, and not much loss of any type is suffered in this context.
Case Study
1- From the above-mentioned case study and the fact that it represents, it is quite
obvious that Frank Piechowski is a first line manager at his company. As a front line
manager, his major responsibility is to ensure that the production process is happening
in the right manner and overlook the conduct of the employees or in this case, the
clerical staff and the labour at the plant (Kokemuller, 2017). Being a front line
manager is difficult than being a top level or a middle-level manager considering the
front line manager has to deal with the labour and the workers of the factory unit.
Since these people are most of the time not that literate and make up for the core
functioning of the organization, the approach which is used to be dealt with them is
quite different from regular employees who are bound by certain principles of
working and company rules. However, with these labour and clerical employees, the
situation is different. Since they make up for the core of the production process, they
have to appease in a certain manner and they have to be shown how they are being
taken care of by the company irrespective of the class of employees they belong to.
Hence, Frank being the front line manager has to work extremely hard to overlook not
just that the production happens efficiently, but also has to ensure harmony between
these employees and the interest of the company as well (Smet, Mcgurk, & Vinson,

Case Study Analysis
2010)
2- External factors play an essential role in the working of an organization. Not only do
they impact the possible sales and influence the consumers, but they also affect the
working and the internal happenings at the organization at some level. The effect is
seen and felt quite vividly, and can be so in any manner. For the case given, the
external factors play a major and a direct role in influencing the operations of the
company. Here, three external factors are of immense important: social, economic and
religious factors (Shaban, 2016). These factors are in a way all intertwined with each
other and have impacted the operations, or have the ability to further impact the
operations in the longer run. To explain further, let us understand the economic
dynamics first. Every organization wants to have cheap labour in this highly
competitive market where they are aware that the consumer can just as easily switch
to the next possible option provided its cheaper than the previous one. Hence, Sunset
Prayers too is looking to beat the competition and make more profits by cutting cost
on labour. Hence, Franks, the production in-charge has strategized to hire people on
the contract than permanently keep them on the payroll. This way, neither he or the
company is liable for any extra expenses incurred on these people. Now because of
this necessity of cheap labour, the company has hired Somalian refugees. Frank has
observed that these Somalian refugees are hard-working and punctual, and can be
trusted. Also, since these people are in need of jobs, it will be easy for the company to
settle these people for quite less than the regular labour would have demanded (Fine,
2016). Hence, these economic situations have diverted the company towards finding
cheap Somalian labour. Next, related to the economic factor, or rather taking off from
it is the social factor. Social behaviours and influences too are responsible for the
working of the organization. Since these employs are Somalian "Muslim" refugees,
they have certain religious restrictions and compliances to be followed. The
organization has had to make a lot of adjustments to retain this labour. For example,
the change in the company cafeteria menu to suit their dietary restrictions, allowing
women to wear traditional clothing and even giving the workforce allowance for daily
prayer five times a day! These social factors have become quite influential for the
organization and have barely made any contribution to the growth of the organization.
The only benefit has been cheaply affordable labour which again, is getting expensive

Case Study Analysis
to maintain. Last, the religious factor has quite obviously been stated; these people
have made the organization focus on their personal religious need so much so that the
company time and production are getting affected by it as well. these elements have
contributed towards an increase in the costs, loss in production time and possible
slow-down in production. All of this, in turn, has directly affected the sales as well.
3- As mentioned by Fall, there are five management functions that the set efficiency
benchmarks for organizations or the benchmarks which organization achieve for
better productivity. They are planning, organizing, communicating, coordinating and
controlling. In the context of the case study organization, it can be understood that the
two most important management functions here are coordinating and organizing
(Villet, 2011). Organizing here has been one of the key aspects of management
undertaken in the case study. Frank, in his capacity of the manager, has ensured that
he is able to get the best possible labour on board that it not only affordable but is also
hardworking. In order to further reduce cost, Frank has devised an entire plan to
accommodate the new labour without much issues in this highly cultural environment.
Organizing was initially a success as the employees were happy because of the
facilities being provided to them. However, this structure of organization soon started
falling apart as the company started observing that it was not sustainable and the
religious requirements of these Somalian refugees were becoming too much for the
company to accommodate and was translating into a loss of working hours and
production time. The next is coordinating. Frank has done a very good job in
coordinating the operations for long. When it came to making adjustments for the new
Somalian labour, even when the adjustments were quite nicely made (Leng &
Yazdanifard, 2014). This ensured that the labours were well settled. However, in the
longer run, these adjustments, as mentioned above were not quite suitable or
sustainable for the company. Coordinating the employees and ensuring that they work
in cohesion is one thing, however, coordinating the employees with respect to the
organization's goals and needs is another. Here, Frank successfully pulled off the type
first of coordination, however, he could not do so when it came to aligning these
people and their requirements to the betterment of the organization in any way.
Hence, in all, it can be said that the operations of the company were neither efficient
nor effective. The company lost out on a lot of time and resources in keeping up with

Case Study Analysis
these affordable labours. In keeping up with their religious sentiments of sunset
prayers, the company will lose potential man-hours of production which will be a
huge loss eventually (Schruber, 2016). Thus, it is advised that Frank finds out a way
to let these people know that there is a limit to the organization adjusting to their
demands and that there are chances that the organization may want to cut down on the
hours they are given for praying, specifically during the afternoon. It is expected of
these labours to understand and adjust in some way possible. This again will depend
on how clear Frank is with these people, which bring in the third management concept
in to play here.
Recommendations
After understanding the situation demonstrated in the case, the following recommendations
can work well for the company:
 Creating a direct communication channel with the workers about the situation and
coming to a common solution
 Adjust the working hours later in the night after by counting the prayers hours and
ensuring that the employees work for the set hours given to them
 Implementing an hourly pay structure (Forbes, 2017)
 Finding few back-up labours to cover few shifts in the night
 Focus on increasing production by wither increasing automation or increasing the
number of people working in the production department
Conclusion
Hence, from the above discussion, we can understand that Frank has to make certain
decisions and stick to them. It is best to create a balance between the adjustments being made
and send out a clear sign to these Somalian labours to make certain adjustments at their end

Case Study Analysis
as well. This way, both the parties meet halfway!
References
Fine, M. G. (2016). Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field. International
Journal of Business Communication.
Forbes. (2017). 11 Strategies For Achieving A More Diverse And Productive Work
Environment. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/20/11-strategies-for-
achieving-a-more-diverse-and-productive-work-environment/
Kokemuller, N. (2017). Definition of Front-Line Management . Retrieved from
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/definition-frontline-management-24345.html
Leng, C. Z., & Yazdanifard, D. R. (2014). The Relationship between Cultural Diversity and
Workplace Bullying in Multinational Enterprises. Global Journal of Management and
Business Research: A Administration and Management, 14(6).
Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity. Procedia
Economics and Finance, 11.
Shaban, A. (2016). Managing and Leading a Diverse Workforce: One of the Main Challenges
in Management. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230.
Smet, A. D., Mcgurk, M., & Vinson, M. (2010). Unlocking the potential of frontline
managers. Retrieved from
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/unlocking-
the-potential-of-frontline-managers
Schruber, M. (2016). Diverse workforce is more productive and active at workplace.
Retrieved from https://www.recruitment-international.co.uk/blog/2016/07/diverse-
workforce-is-more-productive-and-active-at-workplace
Villet, V. (2011). Five Functions of Management (Fayol) . Retrieved from
https://www.toolshero.com/management/five-functions-of-management/