Equity and Diversity in the Workplace: Strategies and Theories

This essay examines the critical importance of equity and diversity in the modern workplace, highlighting its impact on organizational success. It explores the evolution of diversity management, emphasizing the need for corporate leaders to embrace it as a core business strategy. The discussion covers various aspects, including the shift from a departmental responsibility to a profit center, the role of brand management, and the importance of cultural intelligence. The essay also delves into relevant theories, such as the institutional theory of diversity management and the inclusive excellence framework, providing insights into how organizations can effectively implement and sustain diversity initiatives. It emphasizes the need for organizations to invest in education, promote positive experiences, and develop leadership competencies to foster an inclusive and equitable work environment, ultimately driving business results and adapting to changing demographics. The paper also emphasizes the need for organizations to invest in education and positive experiences for promoting diversity, ensuring that the conversation moves beyond representation issues and focuses on supporting the new normal of inclusiveness.

Running head: EQUITY AND DIVERSITY IN WORK PLACE
Equity and Diversity in Work Place
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Introduction
Diversity management has been developed as one of the concepts during the late 1980s in
the North America and the concept has gained much popularity in this world of globalization.
Today, diversity management is necessary for any successful organizational strategy as there is a
high competitive pressure on the organizations in order to improve and sustain the economic
performance as well as the rapid change in aspirations and expectations of the society. This
increases pressure upon the organizations is forcing their attention towards the needs for
addressing contextual realities that have been avoided and were ignored from several years. The
implications of diversity management of this are the workplaces comprised of employees
composed of able-bodies, whites and heterosexual males has now become traditional and are out
of date because they do not reflect the appropriate blend of the current labor market. This paper
will elaborate on the context “Diversity management is a responsibility that every corporate level
executive and department head must embrace as part of their job description, and make part of
their business plan and budget. It must be ingrained in how they think, act and innovate.” It will
shed light on why diversity management is regarded of such an importance in the current
business scenario to be embraced by the departmental head and corporate level executive.
Discussion
It is an evident that the voice of the diverse population of America was heard as well as
their votes were counted at the time of the re-election in 2013 of President Barack Obama. Along
with the victory of Barack Obama and the new multicultural demographic landscape of America,
the corporations started taking notice and they begun paying more concentration and focus on the
diversity management as well as its impact on the revenue streams, new markets, service
offerings, employee retention and recruitment, community outreach as well as branding efforts.

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While the corporations of America was gradually warming up to the benefits and importance of
the diversity as business imperative, lot of works were incomplete and they were still need to be
done and that began with the demanding for a new approach to the diversity management.
Diversity management is all about product development, business strategy, creating leaders,
brand management as well as unearthing active thoughts- the leaders whose voice have the
potential to inspire and educate other in order to ensure business growth as well as opportunity in
the industry (Kirton & Greene, 2016). Intrinsically, the diversity management could no longer be
a functional or departmental responsibility that is led by very less people in the HR department
with very limited budget. It should be a centre of profit which is both measurable and is directly
linked to generate revenue, development and research activities as well as new and innovative
ventures. It could no longer be a mere cost centre values only as a line item first to be cut from
the budget when the projections of revenue are not met.
As stated by (Porter, Goold & Luchs, 1996), diversity management is not something
which could be turned on at once and then turned off in an instant. It is an evident that it has been
nearly impossible to develop any kind of impact, momentum or continuity when it comes to the
question of retaining and recruiting top talents.
Furthermore, (Von Krogh, Ichijo & Nonaka, 2000) has described diversity management
as a “responsibility that each and every department head and corporate level executive should
embrace as a part of their business plan and budget. It must be ingrained in how they think, act
and innovate.” The certification of diversity management in fact, should be needed across each
and every leadership and management roles.
It is to be ensured that the diversity management should move beyond the supported
nation “check box” mentality in which all the diverse groups are supported or favoured different

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times rather than every groups every times, and become a day to day responsibility that is
intrinsic within the culture of the organisations which is embraced by everyone working within
and outside of the company. People should view diversity with a viewpoint or lens which is more
about limitless opportunities for ruling a cultural mosaic that is fuelled by the untapped
intelligence. Till then, the concept of diversity would not be taken into consideration and would
not be given much importance as the people will remain unprepared and uninformed regarding
what it mean to the business as well as to their careers in true terms.
At the times when the budget are being inspected and the ROI is been carefully and
cautiously measures, the corporation would not then invest in the advocacy. This is what the
concept of diversity is recognised and perceived as being. Also, this is indeed the way how the
concept of diversity has been factually or historically managed as well as how the decisions have
been made. It was the way in which the decisions were made and not only corporations have
made them, in fact they were made by limitless number of non-profit professional companies or
organisations, which support and advocate their respective constituencies. These are the
organisations that are very important as because they play a specific role. However, this is also to
note that they must also recreate themselves in order to leverage and influence their precious
resources in such a way that it could directly influence the total supply chain of a corporation by
focusing towards driving the business results as well as the easily measurable ROI (Kirton &
Greene, 2016).
The Diversity management has a problem of brand image that must be corrected as soon
as possible. There are many people who believe that the term “diversity” carries with itself a
negative connotation, which could make the people feel uncomfortable and agonizing (Kirton &
Greene, 2016). This also has become more of a dogmatist instead of an enabler for the primary

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influencers whose focus is on the business specific and bottom line results. With the same, it is
also to note that there are many executives who believe that the term diversity stands in their way
when they are asked to take part in the primary initiatives.
In this modern world, there is a high need for the entire organisation to endow and spend
wisely on the diversity management in the workplace. They must invest in diversity management
in a way that it could promote education and positive experiences. The active participation would
then promote opportunity and growth, not only for the business but also equally for the people
who are brave enough to assist the change paradigms (Kirton & Greene, 2016). It is both
important and admirable to become a diversity practitioner. However, it is also to note that it is
no longer enough. It is very important to ensure that the conversation is moving well beyond the
representatives issues as well as it is focusing on supporting the new normal of inclusiveness.
Diversity management needs to shift its efforts on transforming the initiatives into the
best practices that becomes an implanted part of the central ethos of the company. It is all about
being culturally intelligent about a person himself as well as the others in order to allow higher
level of performance in the workplace and to sell and market in more authentic manner. It is also
important to enjoy profitability and sustainable growth in the new markets, which serves the
country,’s changing demographics. In this context, (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014) has stated that
diversity management is something that is all about achieving the perspective of the global
markets as well as to know how to build meaningful strategic business associations and alliances
which could further help in strengthening the supply chain.
It is also to mention that if an organisation wants to successfully lead the diversity
practices within the work place, it must ensure that its diversity management leadership must
incorporate a set of competencies. This is in order to asses that the firm is living the diversity

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daily through its business, brands and people in meaningful and purposeful methods that could
take into consideration the key aspects. Firstly, the brand management advisors for enabling
effective messaging, communication and positioning process. Secondly, the culturally relevant
education and training in order to support decision making process and understanding. Thirdly,
personal branding in order to allow people to be in their authentic selves. This would also help in
strengthening the speciality of their identity. Fourthly, the though leadership, which introduces
new perspectives for advancing the diversity movement of the modern days. With the same,
along with these aspects the aspect of cross-cultural think tanks is also necessary. It helps in
suffusing the cultural intelligence into the business equation.
In the present case scenario, the organisational environment is highly motivated by the
diversity management. Therefore, it is important for the company to follow certain strategy and
theory in order to implement an effective diversity management process. In this regards, there are
an array of theories that are used for specific field of study (Barak, 2016). Among those theories,
the institutional theory of diversity management which puts emphasis on the social environment
imbibed in the organisational environment. In order to envisage a clear depiction of the diversity
in organisation, it is necessary to understand the behaviour of the employees. It is the role of the
organisational management to incorporate the diverse workplace environment (Asumah &
Nagel, 2014). For the incorporation it requires the organisational structure that depends on
legislation, laws, rules, regulations and social and professional norms. Due to the existence of
such organisational framework, the private company also follows the same line and tries to
maintain the organisational set up. In this regards, the company management strictly follows the
requirements erected from the company set up (Kirton & Greene, 2016). Diversity is a strategic
step which can influence every aspect of the company and the norms and elements of the

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company y are highly depended upon it (Urciuoli, 2016). Subsequently, to keep pace with those
elements the company authorities are also bound to transform the workplace environment and
introduced a diversity mechanism with the growing demand of the elements (De Aquino &
Robertson, 2017). In other words, it can be articulated that as the laws and legislations require
organisation to become diverse, they must prove to both individuals within and outside the
organisation about it. The fail to implement diversity in workplace environment will leads to the
violation of the laws and regulations of the business organisation. Therefore, the principle
argument propounded by the institutional theory referred that the organisation is solely
responsible for changing the workplace environment and introduce the practice of diversity as
per the requirement of the company (Singh, 2018).
In this context, the inclusive excellence work of diversity management is highly responsible to
procure an effective diversity mechanism. As per the theory of inclusive excellence framework,
it signifies that the implementation of diversity is intertwined with the notion of excellence
(Janssens & Zanoni, 2014). As the institutional theory puts stress on the change within the
organisation, the model of inclusive excellence further facilitates the process by affixing the core
institutional functioning with it (Kirton & Greene, 2016). In organisational workplace culture the
inclusive excellency model can be considered as effective and efficient because it not only brings
diversity in the working environment but also develops excellence in job.
The inclusive excellence model is categorised into four dimensions:
The first dimension is related to access and success. Before going to establish the diversity it is
important for the management of the organisation to investigate and measure the need of change.
The next step is associated with the ability of the employees and staff to imbibe the essence of
diverse work culture. In most of the cases, it is seen that the company authority implements a

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mechanism which is required for the company but the authority misread the ability of the
employees fitted with the new mechanism (Kirton & Greene, 2016). As a result of that there will
be a problem regarding the efficiency of the working components. Moreover, it can be
considered as a threat to the very establishment of the company. Therefore, it is very important
for the company decision makers to grasp an idea of the potentiality of the employees. Moreover,
the climate of the organisation is also responsible for creating a better culture of diversity in the
working environment (Nicklich, M., & Sydow, 2017). In this regards, it is also imperative for the
company to figure out the intensity of implementing the diversity framework in the organisation.
The final step of the inclusive excellence model is identified as vitality and viability. It is
primarily the outcome of the model which demarks the positivity or flaw of the proposed
framework. In this regards, it can be argued that the model is a matrix framework infused with
excellence and diversity.
The model is primary put emphasis on the educational institutions. However, there is a
possible way to implement the Inclusive Excellence Model in the organisational framework. In
this context the concept of the model will remain same but the structure will be slightly deviated
in compare to the main framework (Mullen, Rodríguez & Allen, 2017). The first step is
highlighted about the diversity where the primary focus will be set on the individual differences.
Difference is identified in terms of race or ethnicity, class, gender and politics and religion. The
second aspect is parallel to the idea o inclusion. It is closely related to the diversity and
prescribes a process through which the company can include diversity in the organisational
workplace (Kirton & Greene, 2016). It will help an individual employee to perceive the idea of
importance of diversity in workplace culture and increase awareness, cognitive sophistication
and emphatic understanding while4 that person is interacting with the practice of diversity

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(Nicklich, M., & Sydow, 2017). Equity is considered to be the next step in order to formulate
workplace diversity. It can be argued that equity resembles the idea of equal access for all the
employees irrespective of their class, ethnicity or gender. It is able to foster an impartial image of
the organisational management that can be beneficial for employee satisfaction. In addition to
this, the equity- mindedness is very essential to be maintained. The organisational authority
should be aware of the fact that a sense of equality must be transcended among the employees
which is the fundamental basis of manifesting diversity.
The institutional theory highly emphasised on the role of organisation in rendering
diversity in workplace. The theory instigates the authority to take necessary steps to formulate
proper framework for the organisation. Moreover, the inclusive excellence approach makes it
proper to implement the theory in practice. Henceforth, it can be argued that the model and the
theory are relevant in constructing organisational diversity and prove it justified in practice.

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