Comprehensive Report: Diversity and Inclusion in Auckland Council

This report provides a detailed analysis of diversity and inclusion practices within the Auckland Council. It begins with an executive summary and an organizational overview, describing the council's structure and operational activities. The report then identifies key stakeholders, including employees, managers, and citizens, emphasizing their roles in diversity management. Two focus areas, gender and religion, are examined, highlighting existing disparities and their impact on the workplace. Statistical data on gender participation in the UK labor market is presented, along with a discussion of religious preferences in bank holidays. The report concludes with a proposed diversity action plan, outlining vision, objectives, strategies, and evaluation methods to improve diversity and inclusion within the council. The study emphasizes the importance of managing diversity to enhance team performance and achieve organizational growth, advocating for proactive diversity management initiatives.

Running head: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Diversity & Inclusion
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The study is primarily focused on a local government council named as Auckland Council.
The paper provides a brief assessment of the organization along with the history of the same.
In addition to this, the paper delivers an important understanding of the administrative actions
that the council conducts. Apart from this, the analysis provides an in depth analysis of the
diversity management in the organization. Along with that, the study identifies the relevant
stakeholders of the organization associated with the diversity and inclusion practices in the
organization. Apart from this, the paper provides an accurate assessment of two focus areas
such as gender and religion in context of the diversity and inclusion in the city council. From
the literature, it is evident that the gender discrimination, discrimination on the basis of the
religious belief and cultural values has the potential of destroying the appropriate
management of the diversity in the organizational context. From the analysis, it is
understandable that the participation of the male employees in UK labour and employment
market is considerably higher than that of the female employees. Along With that, the UK list
of bank holidays highlights greater preferences towards Christian communities than other
religions such as Islam. On the contrary, the case is opposite in UAE and that increases the
difficulty in the international human resource management. The inaccurate management of
the diversity has the ability to decrease the team performances and restricts the commercial
association from achieving the desired growth. Hence, it becomes important for the
commercial associations to initiate diversity management activities for promoting and
managing the same in the best possible manner.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Organizational Overview:..........................................................................................................4
Stakeholder Discussion:.............................................................................................................5
Focus Areas:...............................................................................................................................7
Gender:...................................................................................................................................7
Religion:.................................................................................................................................9
Diversity Action Plan:..............................................................................................................10
Vision of the diversity action plan:..........................................................................................10
Objectives of the diversity action plan:....................................................................................11
Strategies:.................................................................................................................................12
Evaluation:...............................................................................................................................13
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................14

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Introduction:
The importance of managing the diversity in the organizational context is notably
evident for ensuring continuously improved performances. As per the comments of De
Bruecker et al. (2015), majority of the modern mainstream organizations are seen to prioritize
the workforce planning for achieving the desired sustainability in their business actions.
Having said that, Grissom Kern and Rodriguez (2015), mentioned that the development of an
efficient workforce that has the capability to conduct a sustainable business is seen to be
dependent on their ability in sourcing expert professionals and in doing so, the companies are
seen to develop an workforce that includes employees of different race, culture, language,
gender and social orientation. As a result, the diversity of the workforces is seen to increase
in a substantial manner. However, Bleidor et al. (2016) claimed that the companies do face
the necessity of managing the diversity or the cross cultural differences amongst the
employees to ensure that their team performances continuously improves. Hence, it is
important for the companies to ensure that they provide the scope to their employees for
participating in the diversity and inclusion practices for achieving the competency of
managing the cross cultural differences and diversity. The discussion is based on one such
organization named as Auckland Council which was established in the year 2010
(Aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, 2020). The discussion delivers an important assessment of the
operations of the administrative entity.
Along with that, the paper evaluates the diversity management and inclusion practices
of the organizations and in addition to this, it identifies the relevant stakeholders associated
with diversity management processes of the organization. The evaluation of the diversity
management processes is based on two different focus areas such as the religion and gender.
With an exact understanding of the impurities that the organization is facing with the

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implementation of the diversity and inclusion practices with respect to the two focus areas
which are religion and gender, the study provides a detailed action plan for the employees
operating in the organization along with the provisions for the evaluation.
Organizational Overview:
With an exact look at the selected entity, it is understandable that the Auckland
Council is a local government council that has the expertise and power of a unitary authority.
The structure of the association is unique in nature which includes three different positions
such as Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillors (Aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, 2020). The mayor
is regarded as an independent affiliation in the association and at the same time, the Deputy
Mayor is seen to be affiliated with Team Franklin. The mayor of the association is Phil Goff
and the Deputy Mayor of the association is Bill Cashmore. Other than this, the councillors of
the association are Cathy Casey, Tracy Mulholland, Efeso Collins, Linda Cooper, Chris
Darby, Alf Filipaina, Christine Fletcher, Richard Hills, Greg Sayers, Shane Henderson, Pippa
Coom, Daniel Newman, Desley Simpson, Sharon Stewart, Angela Dalton, Wayne Walker,
John Watson and Paul Young (Aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, 2020). Considering the operational
activities of the administrative authority, it is observed to play a crucial role in formulating
property rates and in conducting the valuations of the properties. Along with that, the
administrative authority is seen to have the expertise of managing the procedures related to
the licenses and compliance of the regulations. Apart from this, the unitary authority is seen
to play an important role in formulating the plans, policies, projects, reports and bylaws.
Apart from executing these operative actions, the council also has the capability of
controlling several other important bodies such as the Auckland Tourism, Events and
Economic Development Ltd, Auckland Transport, Panuku Development Auckland, Regional
Facilities Auckland and Watercare Services Ltd (Aucklandnz.com, 2020). With a detailed

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look at the operations of the administrative authority, it is understandable that the mentioned
body played a substantial role in the development of the plans such as the Auckland Plan,
Long Term Council Community Plan and City Centre and Waterfront Plans
(Aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, 2020). Hence, it is understandable that the local government
council is managing their operational activities in a professional manner for the socio cultural
and infrastructural development in the region.
Stakeholder Discussion:
As mentioned earlier, the selected entity is a local government council which works
for the betterment of the local region. Similar to many of the employer organizations
operating in the Auckland region, Auckland Council is seen to have substantial number of
employees belonging to different cultural orientation and societal values. As a result, the
efficient management of the diversity from the part of the council becomes much required for
the success of the organization ensuring quality services to their citizens. The primary
stakeholders that are associated with the operations of the local government council are seen
to be the employees working under the administrative authority, the managerial position
holders of the organization, the diversity managers and the general citizens of the region.
With a detailed focus on the list of the stakeholders associated with the organization
for the management of the diversity, it is understandable that the importance of the
employees is notably high in the same. As per the comments of Jones, Wicks and Freeman
(2017), the employees are the primary group of people with the responsibility for the
management of business actions of the organization. The success of the employees in
executing their operational activities has the potential to place the organizations in a better
position for the management of the excessive work pressure that they are subjected to.
Having said that, D’Innocenzo, Mathieu and Kukenberger (2016), mentioned that the

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excellence of the team performances from the part of the employees of the organizations, is
an important success factor for the companies when it comes to manage the excessive
demands of the market. However, the formation of the destructive conflicts or the
inappropriate working environment as a result of the inappropriate management of the
diversity, has the potential to affect the success of the companies in ensuring optimal
workforce management and in enhancing the brilliance of team performances. Hence, the
employees are the main stakeholder of the diversity management processes or the inclusion
action plan as they are the responsible individuals who will take part in the program for
ensuring a substantial improvement in their approach in managing the diversity in the
organizational context.
Other than this, the managerial position holders of the organization are also a crucial
stakeholder group for the diversity management plan and for the inclusion activities. With a
close look at the actions of the managerial position holders, it is understandable that he
mayor, deputy mayor and the councillors do face the necessity to enhance the collaboration
amongst their subordinate employees for improving the quality of business actions
undertaken by them. As the success of many of projects or initiatives of the administrative
authority is dependent on the ability of the lower level employees in performing efficiently, it
becomes important for the higher authority of the organization to ensure that the diversity
amongst the lower level employees is managed in a professional manner. Along with that,
another stakeholder group that holds a higher degree of interest in the diversity management
practices of the organization will be the external or the internal diversity managers (Holck,
Muhr & Villeseche, 2016). The mentioned group of individuals are responsible implementing
the diversity management action plan and for educating the employees regarding the
importance of the inclusion practices. Hence, their success in executing their operational

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activities is seen to be crucial for the success of the organization with the diversity
management plan of the organization.
Other than this, the general citizens of the region are the end customers of the services
that the council offers. Hence, it is understandable that the improved collaboration amongst
the employees as a result of implementation of the diversity management action plan has the
potential to increase the quality of services that the general citizens will receive.
Focus Areas:
With an accurate consideration to the necessity of diversity in the chosen
organizational context, the primary aspects that require considerable amount of improvement
are seen to be related to gender and religion of the employees. As the council has the
necessity to ensure that they provide equal opportunity to each and every employees, it
becomes important for them to source the professionals irrespective of their religion, culture,
language and race (Rice, 2015).
Gender:
With a specific look at the modern organizations, it is visible that the workforces
comprise with participants of different genders as in majority of the cases, the recruitment in
those workforces are conducted on the basis of the skills and expertise of the employees.
Having said that, Ozturk and Tatli (2016), mentioned that the participation of individuals
belonging to different genders not only increases the quality of the collective team
performances but also invites certain challenges for the companies in managing their
operational activities. According to the esteemed opinion of Cumming, Leung and Rui
(2015), there are several job role or activities in the various business industries that are
regarded as specific for the male professionals. Such specified job roles or activities are
largely laborious works where the companies prefer the allocation of male workers to ensure

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that the consumption of the time for executing the same is limited. Along with that, the
allocation of the male workers for such activities is seen to incorporate the necessity faced by
the companies for ensuring the safe and secure execution of the operational activities.
(Information: Employment rates in London (UK) from April 2015 to June 2018, by gender)
(Information Courtesy: Statista.com, 2020)
From the statistics, it is understandable that the participation of the male employees in
the UK labour industry is considerably higher than that of the participation of the female
employees. The participation of male employees is above 70% from middle of June’ 2015 to
middle of June’ 2018 whereas the participation of female employees is lower than 60%.
Having said that, such bias from the part of the higher authority of the companies has
the potential to restrict the participation of the professionals of a particular gender. As a
result, such allocation of the professionals can demotivate the professionals of other gender in
the workforces. Apart from this, Ozturk and Tatli (2016), claimed that the gender bias is a

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major challenge for the modern professionals which affect the diversity in the organizational
context. As per the comments of Kirton and Greene (2015), the success of appropriate
management of the diversity in the organizational context, is seen to be dependent on the
level of collaboration it achieves. Kirton and Greene (2015) further mentioned that there are
several cases where the gender bias has affected the performance evaluation of the employees
and that destroyed the normalcy in the workforces. Cumming, Leung and Rui (2015)
delivered a brutal reflection of the gender bias with the comments that, a great share of the
modern managers evaluate the performances of their employees with a certain level of bias
towards them. The rater bias which is primarily influenced with the sexual orientation of the
employees has the possibility of creating the context for the gender discrimination.
According to the comments of Glass and Cook (2016), in majority of the
organizations, the introduction of the female managers at the higher authority or the
managerial positions, is associated with a certain difficulty and that is regarded as the glass
ceiling. On the other hand, Lucifora and Vigani (2016) mentioned that there is considerable
number of examples where the wage and other value added services offered to a female
employees is considerably higher than that of a male employee. As a result, it creates
disparity in the performance evaluation of the employees and that has the possibility of
creating dissatisfaction amongst the employees of other gender. Hence, it becomes a
challenge for the modern managers to formulate a productive team and to ensure the
formulation of a strong bonding amongst the employees of the organization.
Religion:
Another important factor that increases the diversity in the organizational context, is
seen to be the religion. According to the comments of Martikainen (2016), the modern
workforces are seen to experience the participation of the individuals belonging to different
religious viewpoints and that increase the diversity in the organizational context. Xie (2017),

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stated that certain managers have the tendency of discriminating their employees on the basis
of their religion which is a major concern for ensuring the sustainability in the workforces.
Xie (2017), stated that the formulation of the paid holiday list is one of the important
responsibility of the human resource managers of majority of the modern organizations. As
an efficient employer, majority of the companies try to provide the scope of celebrating the
religious red letter days to their employees and in doing so, such religious red letter days are
seen to be included in the list of holidays. However, the appropriate inclusion of such red
letter days in the list of holidays of an organization has the potential to get affected on the
basis of the preferences towards a religious view point.
According to the comments of Martikainen (2016), the personal preferences of a
business leader towards considering the inclusion of a religious day in the list of the holidays
and excluding another red letter day from the list of the holiday on the basis of lesser
preferences, is a point of concern in ensuring efficient management of the diversity in the
organizational context. Considering the example of UK bank holidays, it is evident that none
of the 7 bank holidays of the nation is there to celebrate for the minority religions such as
Islamic or Hindu. On the other hand, 3 out of the 7 bank holidays of the nation are observed
to provide the scope to the Christian community to practice their religion (Gov.uk, 2020).
Similarly, the list of bank holidays of UAE is observed to include approximately 5 out of 8
holidays designed to celebrate the memorable days of Islam (Government.ae, 2020). On the
other hand, none of the memorable days of the Christian religion is seen to be recognized in
list of Bank holidays of the nation. At the same time, Fourie, Rosselló and Santana‐Gallego
(2015), mentioned that such basis of the mangers have the potential of affecting their success
in ensuring appropriate performance evaluation. As such bias provides an undue advantage to
the employees belonging to a certain religion, it also increases the level of dissatisfaction of
the employees of other region. Hence, it not only becomes challenging for the managers to

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execute their business activities but at the same time, it also creates considerable amount of
chaos inside the organization. Hence, it is understandable that the diversity amongst the
employees gets difficult to manage for the companies when there exist such unbalanced
approach of managing the human resources from the part of the higher authority of the
companies.
Diversity Action Plan:
With a particular look at the two main focus areas which are the gender and religion,
the substantial differences and the detrimental impact of the same on the smooth management
of the operations of the mentioned council is prominent. Being an administrative authority,
the council faces the necessity of increasing the quality of their operations or more
specifically, the employees of the council have the obligation of ensuring continuous
enhancement of their team performances. As inaccurate management of the diversity present
amongst the employees of the council, has the probability of affecting the sustainability of the
workforces, it is important for the council to tackle the same through implementing a
diversity action plan in a professional manner.
Vision of the diversity action plan:
The vision of the council with their diversity management action plan is to influence
their employees for eliminating the scope of occurrence of any sort of inappropriate actions
that has the potential to affect the culture of the organization in negative manner. As the
discrimination amongst the employees on the basis of the gender and religion has the
potential to affect the success of the employees of the council in serving their citizens, the
diversity action plan of the organization is designed for ensuring the fact that each and every
members of the council is valued in the appropriate manner. Along with that, the diversity

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action plan of the organization provides the opportunity to the council in achieving their
mission of empowering their employees for maintaining high quality of services.
Objectives of the diversity action plan:
With a precise look at the literature, it is understandable the mainstream organizations
are affected with the inaccurate management of the diversity and the unprofessionalism from
the part of such organizations in handling the diversity on the basis of the religion and gender
is not only affecting their quality of services and performances, but also decreasing the
sustainability of their workforces. In such situation, the objectives of the diversity action plan
of the organization are as follows:
 Formation of a talented, diverse and dedicated workforce.
 Developing education amongst the employees of the council regarding the diversity
management.
 Improvement of the collaboration amongst the employees of the council.
 Enhancement of the respect of the employees towards the individual differences.
 Providing the opportunity to each and every employees of the organization in
celebrating their festivals or he religious events in the best possible manner.
 Providing equal opportunity to each and every employees of the organization for
achieving the desired promotions.
 Ensuring unbiased and appropriate evaluation of the performances of the employees
from the part of the higher authority of the companies.
Strategies:
The primary strategy for the management of the diversity in the council is to initiate
the employee engagement activities (Fourie, Rosselló & Santana‐Gallego (2015). The
organization is in need to formulate employee engagement activities such as fun game

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sessions or team dinners as that will increase the collaboration amongst the employees of the
organization in a professional manner.
Apart from this, the organization is required to provide equal opportunity to their
employees for achieving the managerial positions. The unbiased evaluation of the suitability
of the candidates for the managerial positions will be of great significance in ensuring the
placement of the deserving candidates. This will also increase the participation of the female
executives at the managerial team of the council. In addition to this, the organization has the
necessity of recruiting diverse professionals at all levels of their workforce as that will be
important in promoting the diversity and respecting the individual differences of the
employees inside the organization in an effortless manner (Cascio, 2015).
In addition to this, the organization is required to ensure that they include equal
number of religious events in their list of holidays from all the religions for promoting the
diversity and for providing the scope to the employees to celebrate their culture. Other than
this, the council authority is required to formulate an executive panel with diverse leaders for
assessing the performances of their employees without the impact of any sort of bias or
gender preferences (Cascio, 2015). Apart from this, the council is required to follow
parameter based performance evaluation forms for evaluating the performances of their
employees without any sort of bias.
Evaluation:
The council authority is in need to follow the practice of the employee surveys for the
evaluation of their success in managing the diversity (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015). In
addition to this, the evaluation of the recruitment and promotion statistics of the organization
will be crucial in assessing the capability of the higher authority of the organization in
promoting the diversity and respecting the individual differences of the employees.

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Conclusion:
On an ending note, it is understandable that the council is managing the administrative
actions in the Auckland region in a professional manner. The higher authority of the council
is able to contribute to development of the region on the parameter of infrastructure, economy
and the style of leading. Having said that, the success of the council in enhancing the quality
of their operations is seen to be primarily dependent on their ability in enhancing the team
performances in the organizational context and in such situation, the efficient management of
the diversity is seen to hold the key to the success of the organization.

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