A Critical Analysis of Honda Motor Company's Diversity Policy Report

This report provides a critical analysis of Honda Motor Company's diversity policy. It begins with an introduction to organizational diversity and its importance, highlighting the benefits of embracing diversity in the workplace, especially in a globalized business environment. The report then provides an overview of Honda Motor Company, its structure, and its commitment to diversity. It delves into the diversity strategies employed by Honda, including training, legal frameworks against discrimination, and the crucial role of Human Resources and management in fostering an inclusive environment. The report examines how Honda's diversity policy is implemented across various departments, including recruitment, management, and the supply chain. It also compares Honda's approach with the diversity policy of the Australian Catholic University (ACU). The report concludes with an assessment of Honda's policy, suggesting areas for improvement, particularly in maintaining and monitoring diversity efforts and ensuring a discrimination-free workplace. The report is a valuable resource for students studying leadership management and organizational behavior, offering insights into how a global company like Honda approaches and manages diversity.

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
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Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
Introduction
Organizational diversity revolves around the total composition of the organization’s
workforce and the extent to which diversity is embraced. Diversity, on the other hand,
involves the inclusions of different personality traits such as age, ethnic origin, race, gender,
marital status, religion, education, among other personal defining characteristics. Over the
recent past, business organizations have reaped quite a lot from embracing diversity in their
workplace. Organizations have stopped looking at diversity as a moral issue but an
opportunity to explore both the consumer and labor market. Diversity in the workplace not
only allows an organization to understand the demographics of the market it serves but also
gaining a competitive advantage against its rivals. In the modern business world, most of the
organizations are taking their operations global, joining the global market and this is where
diversity comes in. Diversity helps them discover untapped opportunities relating to new
customers, products, services and also raw materials. Overall, workplace diversity has
propelled organizational performance and productivity to new unimaginable heights. It is,
due to this reason, therefore, that most of the organizations worldwide have come up with a
comprehensive diversity policy to enhance equity for all the employees and discover
untapped opportunities. Honda Motor Company is one of the companies that have had a huge
global expansion, extending its operations to almost all parts of the world. That has been
made possible by stipulating a comprehensive diversity policy that has enables it not only to
see opportunities but to tap them.
Overview of the organization
Honda Motors Limited was established on 24th September 1948. The company is based in
Tokyo Japan, having a total of 208,399 employees from diverse backgrounds, get from all
over the world. The company, being a public multinational company manufactures and sells

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
automobiles, aircraft, motorcycles, power equipment, among other electronics. It has
branches both nationally and internationally in countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia,
among others (Haas, 2016). It exhibits a vertical-horizontal structure in which the junior
employees learn from the senior employees whereby learning is viewed as a continuous
process. The company uses diverse diversity procedures to ensure that equity and inclusion
are maintained in the organization and that a comfortable working environment is provided.
Both the management and Human Resource department are responsible for establishing and
maintaining diversity at the workplace. The company, therefore, says, "sameness doesn't
work in a product line and doesn't work in a workforce." That explains why since the onset of
the company Honda has “brought together people from different cultures, backgrounds, races,
genders, and sexual orientations. It’s a commitment that hasn’t just created better diversity.
It’s created a better Honda.”
Diversity strategies employed by the organization
Honda motors employ several strategies not only to ensure that diversity is gotten but also
ensure that it becomes the culture of the organization and that it is maintained. One of the
strategies the company employs to establish and maintain diversity is training. The company
gives the employees insights on how they can benefit from having diverse backgrounds
(Emmens, 2017). The training also includes legal implications of the diversity cultivated for
such as harassment and discrimination. Employees are trained on how to work together as a
team and benefit from each other's experiences. The company seeks to make its employees
understand that each employee comes with diverse experience and capability. It, therefore,
encourages them to put together their diverse experiences and capabilities and work together
for the best interest of the company. Companies, according to (Jose, 2016) in most of the
times experience discrimination in terms of color, race, religion, sexual orientation, among
other aspects. Honda Motors limited, in its diversity policy, stipulates the legal actions to be

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
taken if cases of discrimination are reported amongst the employees. That, therefore, not only
encourages the employees to enhance diversity but also make them live by it.
Human Resource also plays a crucial role in enhancing diversity in the workplace. Honda
Motors Limited prohibits discrimination in terms of age, religion, sex, or ethnic background
during the hiring process (Zanoni, 2016). The company has created an environment which
gives all the prospective employees equal chances of being hired and where hiring is done
based on experience and ability and not factors like gender, religion, a race among other
personal defining traits (Gilbert, 2017). The company holds that resumes and applications
should not have any ethnic indicators to allow the human resource managers to vet the lists
without any bias regarding ethnic and sexual orientations.
Honda Motors limited Management has also propelled diversity to new levels. It has made
policies that enhance inclusion and accountability. Managers are hired depending on their
accomplishments, and the management strives to show the workforce that sex, age, ethnic
backgrounds among other related factors do not have an impact on succeeding in the
company. The management has developed a culture that performance and productivity is the
main determining factor for hiring and retention regardless of the ethnic background an
employee comes from (Ghorashi, 2017). That has encouraged hard work and commitment
which has consequently led to an improved productivity which has positively affected the
company enhancing global expansion and dominating its industry’s market. Honda Motors
managers are held accountable for any activity that may discourage diversity in the company
like favoring a particular staff member or deliberately not hiring people because of their
ethnic or religious beliefs.
Establishing diversity is easy but maintaining it is one of the challenging things in an
organization. Honda motors limited provides surveys that are filled by the employees in the

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
zeal to measure the extent of diversity in the company. It has provisions for anonymous
reporting of practices that hamper diversity so that the human resource department can
investigate and take action where necessary (Prasad, 2017). It also provides opportunities like
team building for its employees to ensure that they learn how to live with each other in
harmony and that they appreciate their differences and work towards achieving a common
goal. The company also strives to stay in touch with the employees to establish whether it is
creating a diverse workplace (Joshi, 2016). Through that, Honda motors limited has not only
been able to establish diversity but also live by it.
Honda company also believes that every employee has viable ideas that can help the
company thrive and grow in the global market. It, therefore, gives opportunities for all the
employees, regardless of their ethnic background to provide suggestions to be incorporated in
the strategic planning of the company. In the top decision making, all the involved
stakeholders are listened to regardless of where they come from or what they stand for.
Employees are given equal opportunities to air out their views regardless of their skin color
and religion (Hicks, 2017). That has been one of the factors that have propelled Honda
Motors to higher heights. Different employees come from different backgrounds all over the
world. Listening to them, therefore, means that the company can get ideas on the nature of
the market back in those countries and the cultural beliefs that may either promote or
discourage the sale of the company’s products in that country. Having a diverse workforce
that is listened to has, therefore, had a great impact on the growth, success and the expansion
of Honda Motors Limited.
The board makes one of the most powerful bodies in any organization since it is charged with
the mandate of key decision making. That, therefore, means that all the operations of any
given organization are governed by the board and consequently the success of an
organization depends on its board members’ composition. Due to this reason, therefore,

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
Honda Motors puts much emphasis on the selection of board members. It ensures inclusivity
to ensure that diverse minds come together to make viable decisions for the wellbeing of the
company. That ensures not only diverse ideas but also more practical decision making since
different board members from different background have a different practical understanding
of where they originate. The board member selection does therefore not involve
categorization of people depending on their traits (Fine, 2016). All the shareholders have
equal opportunities of becoming members. There is no limitation depending on sex, religion,
ethnic background among other factors in the selection of the board of members. This
practice, therefore, means that an all-inclusive board will be formed that will make decision
making more practical and sound.
The supply chain is also one of the departments that have faced ethnic discrimination for
most organizations in the world. The organization has acquired suppliers from the most
dominant ethnic groups leaving out the minority groups in the market. This practice is not
only unethical but also deprives an organization the opportunity to exploit a wide market.
Honda Motors limited has incorporated the minority groups in the supply chain (Kalonaityte,
2016). Suppliers and wholesalers from the minority groups living in different areas have been
involved in the supply chain which implies that the company exploits a wider market.
Policies are put in place to ensure that even the marginalized and minority groups are reached
during the supply of its commodities. The supply chain is also built in such a way that
products are delivered not based on ethnic backgrounds but based on demand.
The true picture of Honda motors diversity procedures can only be understood by comparing
it with other successful diversity policies. The Australian Catholic University (ACU)
diversity policy foster for equal opportunity in the employment and the education of staff and
students. That closely relates to Honda diversity policy which states that employees are hired
not based on their ethnic backgrounds but their capability and experience. The ACU also

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
provides harassment and discrimination-free environment (Mathews, 2016). However, Honda
diversity policy has no much emphasis on harassment; it strongly stands for a free
discrimination working environment where employees are treated equally. The ACU also
provides induction training for its new members to introduce them to the institutional culture.
Likewise, Honda Motors provides training and in fact, views training as an ongoing process
that is perpetuated by the leaders.
Conclusion
Workplace diversity is undisputedly one of the major factors that have brought about
organizational growth and flourishing. Employees from diverse backgrounds come with an
accurate understanding of the nature of labor and market in their places. A diverse workforce
also provides diverse expertize and ideas for quality decision making which consequently
increases productivity, eventually flourishing the organization. That, therefore, means that
diversity is the way to go for organizations seeking to grow and diversify their operations.
While Honda has an inclusive diversity policy, it needs to major on maintaining it. The
organization has to develop a culture that encourages the growth of diversity to higher levels.
Monitoring is also very imperative. Several employees are quietly being harassed and
discriminated. There, therefore, ought to be a trustable reporting section for discrimination
and harassment which will eventually bring forth a diverse and discrimination-free
workplace.

Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
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Critical Analysis of a Diversity Policy
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