Managing Workplace Diversity & Relevance of Scientific Management

This essay discusses the importance of managing diversity within business organizations, highlighting the causes of diversity and its impact on organizational performance. It uses Sainsbury's supermarket as a case study to illustrate the challenges and strategies involved in managing a diverse workforce, including communication barriers and talent retention. The essay also examines the principles of Scientific Management (Taylorism) and their continued relevance in modern organizations. It explores how these principles, such as selecting methods based on science, assigning workers based on skills, monitoring performance, and dividing workloads, are still applied in various organizations today. The essay further analyzes the broad characteristics of scientific management, including its systematic approach and emphasis on discarding traditional methods, explaining why these theories have not been entirely phased out in some organizations. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments for students.

SAMPLE

TASK 1
The importance to manage the diversities among their staff in business organization
What causes Diversity in a business organization?
Diversity generally refers to the variety which has been observed in many organizations
in terms of their human resources. An organization is comprises of many individuals which
includes people of different ethnicity, gender, color, socio-economic rank, generation, physical
bearings, physical experience, spiritual faith, ideologies and many more. It is essential for every
organization to manage the diversity in the workplace which can be caused due to rising number
of immigrant mergers joint ventures in different companies and increasing of globalization all
over the world. In order to gain competitive advantage in the market it became essential for
business organization to diversify their workforce so that they can be able to bring different
benefits in business is players like client engagement, brand management, corporate social
responsibilities and many more. Different peoples of different culture came in the organization
which can create different type of conflicts and the company for which a business organization is
required to manage this diversity.
Importance of management of diversity in a business organization
It is essential for business organization to manage the diversity in the organization to
reduce the chances of conflicts. Diversity apart from this there are many reasons to manage
diversity in a workplace. The management of diversity helps a workplace to create a competitive
edge for the business and enhance the productivity of work in the organization for diversity
management includes various steps that has been followed by the business organization to create
fair and safe environment for all the employees by giving them their treatment so that they can
be able to access equal opportunities and challenges in the business. Managing diversity is the
major responsibility of employer in an organization as it helps them to provide equal opportunity
to their workers. Management of diversity in the workplace is also important because it is
directly connected with the human resource management practices in the company which helps
to address the issue of inequality which is becoming the major issue in the business environment.
There are various methods approaches practices and policies that helps to manage diversity
within an organization. This management of diversity provides a different direction to the
business organization by reducing the chances of conflict among human resources due to cultural

differences and enhance their productivity by providing the equal opportunities to them to grow
and develop in the organization. With the help of providing and managing diversity is among
their staff members in the business organization the businesses are able to enhance teamwork and
proper communication among employees which has a great impact on the productivity of the
business. In short the management of diversity among their staff members in the business
organization directly has their influence on increasing productivity of the business which helps
the business to gain competitive advantage and achieve success in the marketplace.
Challenges that are faced by Sainsbury’s supermarket in order to manage their workplace
diversities
J Sainsbury PLC is a supermarket in United Kingdom who covers approximately 16 % of the
share of the supermarket sector. Since per is this the largest chain of supermarket in United
Kingdom and well known for their retailing in grocery sector. Became largest chain in United
Kingdom since this is required to diversify their business in many locations and employee
different employees of diverse nature and culture. There are many challenges that are faced by
Sainsbury’s in order to develop and manage diversity in the workplace. The major challenge
which has been faced by the companies the communication challenge in which the cultural
language and perceptual barriers became a hurdle for the company in their diversity programs to
succeed. Effective communication increases lack of teamwork low morale and confusion among
the employees which has a direct impact on the business. Another challenge which has been
faced by the company is so many opinions and hostility in the organization which creates sense
of confusion in the organization and can be able to create conflicts in the future. Diversity focus
to retain talent in the organization and the largest challenge which has been faced by the
organization to create divers workplaces to retain bad talent in the organization. In order to
enhance growth and competitiveness of the organization is required to develop their ability in
order to hold diversity and realize their benefit in the organization. In order to face the challenge
of diversity Sainsbury’s has introduced a website on internet to manage diversity and inclusion in
the organization. The site provides guidance to the employees through which they will be able to
manage faith and belief of other employees manage disability and guide people to be more aware
of other people needs. Another option which has been provided to the employees is that they can
be able to report any kind of discrimination or harassment they are facing in the organization
with the help of a proper procedure which has been followed in the fair treatment and complete

procedure. The company also plans to develop plans for their older workers with the help of
retirement plan pension protection and many more. In the business plan of Sainsbury’s the
company is well known for their diversity and equality policies. These diversities and equality
policies helps the company to provide growth and development to the employees and improve
both sales and customer services in the organization. The company also provides flexibility to
their employees through which they can be able to cover holidays due to their religious festivals
across the year. This also provides a great satisfaction to the employees and help them to be
connected with the organization providing this flexibility for the festivals helps the organization
to celebrate all kind of festivals of different cultures and the organization which is very important
to create a diverse environment in the organization. In other words Sainsbury always focus to
manage their diverse workforce in effective manner.
TASK 2
Despite its weaknesses, certain aspects of Scientific Management (Rational Goal Theory or
Taylorism) continue to exist in several organizations today
Scientific management theory has been provided by Patrick Taylor in which provides for
four basic principles that will help management to manage workplace and employees in effective
manner. There are several weaknesses that are identified in the scientific management principles
but this per principles are continuing in use in various organization in this modern world. The
Four scientific management principles and their use in organization today are explained below:
Select method based on science, not “rule of Thumb”: The first principle of scientific
management that are included in terrorism is to select a method to manage the organization on
the basis of science and not the rule of thumb. In the today's organization the situation and
leadership provides this selection to the leaders to choose one best way for their employees to do
a job in effective manner.
Assign workers job based on their attitudes: There are many organizations in today's world
who divide their workers on the basis of their skills and capabilities to assign them jobs that are
based on their capabilities and train them to grow in a specific field so that they can enhance
their efficiencies.

Monitor worker performance: It is the third principle which has been provided by scientific
management principles of Taylorism in which an organization should monitor the efficiency of
their workers to provide additional instructions to them. It became a major job of human resource
department in the today's organization which helps the companies to provide appraisals and
rewards to their employees.
Properly divide the workload between managers and workers: Today's organizations like
Sainsbury also focus to have a proper plan and training to complete the work in the effective
manner in the organization. The work of the organization is divided in effective manner at the
planning process which helps to reduce the workload of managers and workers in the
organization.
All the principles that has been provided by the Taylorism are used in today's
organization in many ways which helps to identify that the scientific management also have its
existence in various organizations today.
Discuss the broad characteristics of the theory and explain why they have still not been phased
out entirely in the operations of some organizations.
There are various characteristics of scientific management that helps to provide the
usefulness and weaknesses of scientific management theory that has been used in many
organizations today. Characteristics helps to understand the reasons because of which these
scientific management theories are still not phased out completely from the operations of some
organizations. Some of the characteristics the scientific management theories and the reason of
these theories to be still use and not phased out entirely in the operations of some organizations
are explained below:
Systematic Approach: Scientific management provides a systematic approach to the
management of an organization which ensures that all the functions that has been followed in the
organization should be completed in a scientific and systematic manner. There are many
organizations in today's world who work in a proper systematic manner by having great
management. Taking example of Sainsbury’s who used a systematic approach of management in
which they have a proper performance management system and proper allotment of work
between employees and managers and also assign where workers job on the basis of their skills
and capabilities. This systematic approach which has been used in the Sainsbury’s has been

provided by scientific management theory which has been used in a large organization like
sainsburys in today's world also.
Discard Traditional Approach: The scientific management theories are provided to discard the
traditional methods that has been used in the management and adopt new and modern techniques
to enhance and improve the efficiency of employees. It has been also noticed in many
organization these days that the organizations are always ready to adopt new and modern
techniques to enhance efficiency of their employees and use various management techniques.
This discarding of traditional management and using new and modern techniques in the
organization shows that the scientific management theories has not completely phased out from
the organizations and still are used in some ways in the companies.
Requires strict observance of rules: Scientific management theories that has been provided by
Frederick Taylor requires that the employer should have a strong observance in the organization
that rules and regulations are followed. Rules are formulated for the benefit of the employees as
well as organization and it should be followed in the company to reduce the chances of errors
and omissions in the organization. Although it is a weakness of scientific management because
many organization likes to follow flexibility in their organization to provide better services to
their employees and enhance their creativity and productivity. But it has been also used in the
organization up to some extent to maintain discipline as some important rules that has been
followed in the organization are always getting is strict observance in the company. Taking an
example of Sainsbury’s the company has strict observance on the rules that they are formulated
to maintain diversity and inclusion in the organization and any case of discrimination and
harassment is taken on a serious note in the organization which shows the strict observance of
rules in the organization.

REFERENCES
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