Developing a Diversity Policy: Ethical & Legal Imperatives

This essay discusses the ethical imperative of diversity in organizations, providing a policy statement that incorporates both secular and biblical perspectives. It evaluates the legal arguments supporting diversity and summarizes the benefits an organization gains from embracing a diverse...Read More

Ethical aspects of management
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................5
References:......................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction:
With expansion of business in more than one country the corporate sectors faces problem of
diversity management. Diversity in corporate organization is related with various religious of
employees and various sects of employees. The religious tenet and beliefs play an important role
in shaping behaviour, attitude of an individual. Therefore, it is necessary to manage diversity
intelligently to promote a secular environment in the organization along with maximizing
employees’ performance
Discussion:
a. According to Gröschl (2016), diversity of employees should be managed not only with aim of
encouraging cooperation and coordination it is crucial to promote secularism within the
organization. As Bible support secularism, it will be unethical to curb the religious freedom of
employees. The biblical ethos put emphasis on corporate model to follow the secularism idea as
the local church community. The corporate sectors hire outsiders with aim of gaining from their
talents therefore, it is their responsibilities to provide them secular environment. As stated by
Andreoni et al. (2016), if the employees are endowed with secular environment within the
organization, they will feel free to work and there will be more attachment from the employees’
perspectives. Hence, according to biblical view, the corporate sectors are gaining from their
skills and it is their responsibility to provide them secular environment. Secular environment in
the organization help to make them feel that their religious is not under danger in the
organization.
Various biblical psalm direct people to inspire them to worship (Ps. 100), therefore it will be
unethical from biblical point of view to restrict people from worshiping their desired god. As
opined by Khan et al. (2018), the Biblical guidance is helpful in making any decisions in
everyday life and the corporate sector can use biblical perspective to make their environment
secular. Moreover, secularism is important attributes of modern day world and most of advanced
nations of world follow secularism as one of their rule in the nations. Thus, corporate sector
cannot deny making their institutions a modern one and secular environment will help the
employees to have more satisfaction in serving the nations.
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b. In the era of globalization, business organizations are devoted to take best skills from world
wide in cheap manner. Therefore, it is responsibility of corporate sectors to provide them with
comfortable environment in the workplace. As stated by Blanchet et al. (2014), diversity
becomes important part of current business trend and no organization can extend their business
operation in the international level without including diversity in their organization. Diversity is
source of more skills and talents that help the organization to get better performance. The
diversity of employees can be managed and channelized for better performance of organization.
The diversity of workers if not managed properly can be sourced of breeding ground of conflict
and non coordination. One of major factors of diversity among employees is religious diversity
and different religious have different tenets. Not all persons have tolerant attitudes and not every
employee accepts all religious freely. Thus, according to Hanson (2017), the main branch of
business organization may be placed in one country and the management generally uses festivals
or holiday planning according to that religious rules. This does not mean that other religious
employees will be forced to adopt those religious rules. They must be felt that their religious is in
danger and secular attitude in organization will urge them to join the organization by offering
their high efforts.
The title VII of civil rights Act 1964 prohibits any kind of discrimination of employees on basis
of race, color, religion, national origin and sex. Therefore, management of all organization msut
should promote secular attitude in the organization. The American with disabilities Act in 1990
prohibits discrimination of employees against physical or mental disability. Moreover, the civil
right Act 1991 codifies the adverse impact theory of discrimination. The civil right act also
clarifies and empowers rules for enforcement of anti discrimination provisions
(referenceforbusiness.com 2018).
c. The cultural diversity in an organization gives various benefits to the organization if diversity
is managed and channelized properly. Therefore, one of major instruments of management to
approach employees in favor of diversity is the highlighting benefits of diversity. As stated by
Dow Cuypers & Ertug (2016), the first advantageous of diversity is to promote innovation and
creativity. As there will be more diversity, there will be more talents. More talent will lead to
innovation, creativity and new idea, as more employees will give more and more ideas. The
diversity of employees will offer pool of diversified employees with various talents, skills and
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competencies. Diversity in organization lead to innovation and creativity and many languages
help in accessing diversified clients. This help to extend the business operations and open the
door of business in large extent. The languages barriers are major obstacles for a company. All
these factors help to increase level of productivity in the organization. Moreover, management of
diversity along with secular attitude can increase the performance level of employees.
As opined by Koenig Bolden & Kymlicka (2015), the employees feel comfortable and happy in
secular environment where every religious is given desired priority. The equality among
employees in all spheres encourages their mental attachment with the organization. Apart from
job satisfactions, employees feel valuable in the organization and equality secular behaviour
helps to boost their morale. The higher level of morale and satisfaction higher will be level of
productivity. Hence, high productivity is obviously favorable for organization growth and
management should try to highlight benefits of diversity to the employees.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be stated that employers in business organization have an obligation to
provide employees with a safe work place that is free of discriminations. Free religious
discrimination is one of important factors that encourage people from different religious groups
to join the organization. Diversity among employees provides various benefits to the
organization as the diversity will increase there will be more skills, talents. Thus, management of
an organization must try to promote secular attitude within the organization along with managing
diversity among the employees.
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References:
Andreoni, J., Payne, A. A., Smith, J., & Karp, D. (2016). Diversity and donations: The effect of
religious and ethnic diversity on charitable giving. Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization, 128, 47-58.
Blanchet, H., Gouillieux, B., Alizier, S., Amouroux, J. M., Bachelet, G., Barillé, A. L., & Grall,
J. (2014). Multiscale patterns in the diversity and organization of benthic intertidal fauna
among French Atlantic estuaries. Journal of Sea Research, 90, 95-110.
Dow, D., Cuypers, I. R., & Ertug, G. (2016). The effects of within-country linguistic and
religious diversity on foreign acquisitions. Journal of International Business
Studies, 47(3), 319-346.
Gröschl, S. (2016). Diversity Management between ‘Myth and Ceremony’and Strategic
Economic Rationale–Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence from Germany
Inéz Labucay. In Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 167-188). Routledge.
Hanson, R. A. (2017). Intergroup Contact through Study Abroad: An Investigation of Effects of
Study Abroad on Student Engagement with Racial and Religious Diversity.
Khan, N., Korac‐Kakabadse, N., Skouloudis, A., & Dimopoulos, A. (2018). Diversity in the
workplace: An overview of disability employment disclosures among UK
firms. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.
Koenig, M., Bolden, J., & Kymlicka, W. (2015). Governance of religious diversity at the
European Court of Human Rights. International Approaches to Governing Ethnic
Diversity, 51.
Referenceforbusiness.com (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Em-Exp/Employment-Law-and-
Compliance.html
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