University Diversity Policy Report: Legal, Context, and Procedure

This report provides a detailed analysis of a diversity policy, examining its purpose, definitions, and the context within which it operates. It delves into the legal aspects of diversity, highlighting relevant legislation and the importance of diversity management in the workplace. The report explores the impact of diversity on both individual employees and the organization as a whole, discussing the content of the policy concerning individual employees, the organization, and clientele. Procedures for policy implementation, including reviews and applications, are also outlined. The report emphasizes the importance of employee confidentiality, equal opportunities, flexibility, and effective communication to foster an inclusive work environment. Furthermore, it underscores the organization's responsibility to remove discrimination and link its values with the diversity policy for effective implementation and positive outcomes. The report concludes by emphasizing the positive implications of a diverse workforce on both the organization and its clientele, ultimately benefiting the company in the long run.

Running head: DIVERSITY POLICY
Diversity Policy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Summary......................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Purpose..................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Definitions.............................................................................................................................3
2. Background and Context.............................................................................................................3
2.1 Legal Aspects.........................................................................................................................3
2.2 Diversity Management in Workplace....................................................................................4
2.3 Diversity in Workplace..........................................................................................................5
3. Policy Content.............................................................................................................................7
3.1 Individual employees.............................................................................................................7
3.2 Organization..........................................................................................................................9
3.3 Clientele...............................................................................................................................10
4. Procedures for diversity policy implementations......................................................................11
4.1 Review of diversity policy:..................................................................................................11
5. Policy Application.....................................................................................................................13
6. References..................................................................................................................................14

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1. Summary
In the recent period, with the international commercial and business scenarios becoming
more inclusive, cognitive and integrated, the workplaces in general are subjected to many types
of diversities in their operational framework. These diversities include the types of operations
that are incorporated in the workplaces, the areas and domains of exploration as well as the
different types of labor force, which are present in the workplaces (Rice, 2015).
With time, diversities in the global workplaces in general have become one of the
primary components and are even expected to increase with the work culture becoming cognitive
and inclusive, requiring people of various specialization, culture and origin (Barak, 2016).
However, often in workplaces, people are discriminated or judged based on their racial, gender
or ethnic diversities, which thereby acts as a de-motivating factor, preventing them to realize
their potential.
Keeping this into account our organization formulates and implements a diversity policy
frameowrk, incorporating the areas of individual, organization and commercial domains. The
background and the context behind the policy, the content of the formulated policy and the
application of the same is covered in the policy document.
1.1 Purpose
Keeping the importance of management of diversity in the workplaces in consideration,
the diversity policy is formulated with the purpose of documenting the commitment and the
objectives of the organization in its endeavor of promoting and supporting diversities in the

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workforce. This in turn indicates towards the fact that our organization views all the employees
as equal, irrespective of their social, ethnical, gender, sexual orientation and other attributes.
The policy incorporates the idea that presence of people of different diversities in the
above-mentioned aspects not only adds to the talent pool of our company but also enhance the
scope of the same to venture and succeed in different arenas, which is helped by their diverse
specializations and characteristics (Harvey & Allard, 2015). Promoting diversity also increases
popularity of the organization not only among the workers but also among their clientele.
1.2 Definitions
The term “Workplace Diversity” encompasses differences among the workers in an
organization in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, culture, skills, cognitive style,
language, marital status, career responsibilities, job functions, sexual orientation and personality
(Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich, 2013).
2. Background and Context
2.1 Legal Aspects
The primary problem, which a diverse workforce faces in an organization, is the threat of
discrimination and assessment of their capabilities and potentials in terms of indicators, which
include their race, age, culture, gender and even sexual orientation. However, under the legal
framework, discrimination of any unfair forms in the workplaces is illegal and is subjected to
penalty (Guimond et al., 2013). There have been several acts, which have been implemented to
encourage diversity and to save the diverse workforces from any kind of discrimination, which
the diversity policy of our organization recognizes. These include the following:

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a) Age Discrimination Act (2004)
b) Disability Discrimination Act (1992)
c) Racial Discrimination Act (1975)
d) Sex Discrimination Act (1984)
Taking these into account the diversity policy of the company encourages it to adapt diversities
in their workforces and to create equal opportunities for each of the workers according to their
capabilities, with no discrimination in the following aspects:
 Job offers
 Recruitment processes
 Interview procedures
 Employment terms
 Pay-scale
 Employee benefits, promotion and other employee empowerment facilities
 Discipline and dismissal policies
2.2 Diversity Management in Workplace
As can be seen from the existing organizational frameworks across the globe, the
diversities in the workforce of the companies are often subjected to different types of
discriminations, both from their employers as well as from the perspectives of their co-workers.
These discriminations can be both voluntary as well as involuntary. Both of these types of
discriminations discouraging diversities hamper the individuals as well as the organizations.
Therefore, it becomes essential for the concerned organization, under this situation to

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acknowledge the aspects of presence of different types of diversities in the workforce and to
encourage the same, not only for the purpose of creating a healthy work environment for all the
employees but for also adding to their motivation to work harder (Forstenlechner, Lettice &
Özbilgin, 2012.
2.3 Diversity in Workplace
Given the fact that diversity in the workplaces has been becoming one of the obvious
components in the contemporary global commercial scenario the presence of a robust diversity
policy framework is of immense importance in the organization. The impacts of the diversity
policy framework are expected to influence the following arenas under the operational
framework of the organization:
 Diversified workforce
 The organization itself
 External aspects and the clientele of the organization
2.3. a. Diversified work force
The presence of diversities in the workforce and also the presence of unfair
discrimination with respect to personal diversified attributed of the employees have considerable
negative impacts on the mental and physical well being of the workers and also hamper their
long term career growth. Due to presence of diversities, which include racial, cultural,
background and linguistic aspects, the workers often face challenges in the following aspects:
 Understanding their job roles
 Proving their capabilities
 Communication

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 Understanding the company policies
 Incorporating and accepting the others’ diversities
 Overcoming the subtle discriminations done with them
 Progressing in their professional domains (Brouwers et al., 2016)
2.3. b. Organization
The concept of diversity had been present in the organizational framework in the
international scenario for decades. However, in the previous periods, the concept of
incorporation and promotion of these diversities in the workforces had not been prevalent in the
organizations. In the contemporary period, the overall commercial culture has been changing and
with time, more and more organizations across the world have been trying to address the
diversity in their workforces (Sabharwal, (2014). The companies incorporating diversities have
also been seen to be experiencing increase in their productivity and goodwill, both among their
workers as well as among their clienteles (Guillaume et al., 2017).
Keeping this into consideration, our company frames the diversity policy, such that the
diversities of the employees are not only acknowledged but are also encouraged in order to
incorporate the same in the production process (Wambui et al., 2013).
2.3. c. External Aspects and Clientele
The diverse workforce in the companies often helps in the aspect of catering to varied
nature of clienteles. This is especially true in the contemporary period with more and more
companies venturing outside their home countries and exploring different markets and product
and service delivery. This expansion of their operational activities require workers with different
skills, specializations, linguistic capabilities as well as inherent talents, which in turn makes it

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crucial for the companies to incorporate diversities (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). A diverse
workforce not only increases the productivity of the organizations but also helps in
understanding the varied needs of their existing and potential clients, thereby increasing the
goodwill of the company. Thus, proper diversity management in the concerned company can
have positive implications on the clientele of the company itself, thereby benefiting the company
in the long run (Downey et al., 2015).
3. Policy Content
The content of the diversity policy, with respect to the three arenas, which are expected to
experience the implication of the same, is discussed as follows:
3.1 Individual employees
The primary area where the diversity policy of the concerned organization is expected to
have considerable implications is the workforce of the company. Keeping this into account, the
following aspects are kept into consideration while formulating the policy:
a) Employee confidentiality- One of the primary aspects of the employees which the company
needs to respect is the confidentiality, especially regarding their personal attributes, including
religion, cultural background, ethnicity and sexual orientation (Jonsen et al., 2013). This is one
of the primary content of the diversity policy of the concerned organization (Freedland et al.,
2016). The diversity policy of our company, in this context, has the provision of maintaining
anonymity of the employees, especially in the sensitive cases where the opinions of the
employees will be collected. Any poll or voting which involves the employees will be done only
after asking for their permission and post their satisfaction regarding the confidentiality of their
identity as well as individual characteristics.

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b) Equality in opportunities- Another important aspect, which the policy focuses upon, is the
provision of equal opportunities and scopes of growth of the employees in the organization itself,
based on their individual talents and capabilities and not on their race, caste, religion or other
attributes which are not relevant in their professional domains. In this aspect, the people with
special abilities are specifically considered and the diversity policy of our company provides
operational framework such that the people with special abilities in the company do not feel left
out or less capable than the others do. Under the diversity policy of the company, the diverse
characteristics of the employees, especially their personal attributes are respected and they do not
become a parameter of judgment of their professional capabilities in front of their employers or
co-employees.
c) Employee flexibility- The primary working notion behind the formulation and
implementation of diversity policy in the organization is that each employee is an individual
himself or herself, with characteristics, both professional as well as personal, being different
from one another. Keeping this into consideration the policy framework intends to make scopes
of equal accessibility of special psychological support. The diversity policy of our organization,
keeping this into account, provides special and required arrangements for differently able
employees as well as for women pre and post pregnancy such that they can work from the
comfort of home or in a more comfortable space in the office according to their needs. Other
employees are also eligible to such facilities according to their needs.
d) Communication- One of the primary aspects in the work environment of the organization,
which the diversity policy of the concerned company indents to facilitate, is the aspect of free
flow of ideas and communication among the diversified workforce of the company. The barriers
in this aspect, which include racial, linguistic and other barriers, are intended to be removed

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under this framework (Zhang & Venkatesh, 2013). The policy, keeping this into account, helps
in creating an inclusive environment for all the workers, where all their languages and cultures
are respected and given equal importance, such that no worker feels out of place. In case of any
language or communication based hurdle faced by any employee, under the diversity policy of
our organization, the same can approach the relevant personnel and also the human resource
department to address the issue.
3.2 Organization
It becomes the primary responsibility of the management of the organization itself to
modify the overall work environment of the company to incorporate and encourage diversity in
the workforce. For this purpose the diversity policy intends to contain the following aspects:
a) Values- The values of the organization need to be linked with the diversity policy, which in
turn is supposed to be a reflection of the work culture of the company. If the policy is not
supported by the values of the company, then there may not be any positive effect of forming and
implementing any diversity policy. Keeping this into consideration the diversity policy
incorporates the value for respecting diversities of all the employees in the company itself.
b) Removal of discrimination- There often exist many deliberate as well as involuntary
discriminating aspects among the employees in the organizations and often these discriminations
are created based on the individual and extremely personal diversities of the individual
employees, which are most of the times irrelevant to the jobs they are assigned to do (Vickers,
2016). The policy of our organization helps in ruling out any kind of unfair discrimination on
part of the employers. In case of any discrimination on part of any employer or co worker

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requisite measures are taken by the company and there also remains scopes for punishments of
the offenders and compensation to the victims.
c) Assistance- Under the policy framework, there remains the provision of adequate support and
assistance for the employees who feel mistreated or discriminated by the company as well as by
the co-workers. The support needs to be provided in terms of professional assistance as well as
personal and individual level provision of comfort and encouragement to make the diverse
workforce easy and comfortable in the operational framework which the diversity policy intends
to do.
3.3 Clientele
The diversity policy also intends to be positively contributing to the clientele of the
company in the following aspects:
a) Impacts on customers- The presence of an operational framework promoting diversity in the
workforce, automatically increases the goodwill of the company among the customers. Keeping
this into consideration, the policy contains provision of promoting the diversities of the
employees in front of the existing and potential clientele.
b) Impact on supply chain providers- The diversity policy of the concerned organization also
makes it prominent in front of the different supply side providers of the company that the
company maintains and promotes diversity of every aspect in their employee population
(Garnero, Kampelmann & Rycx, 2014).

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4. Procedures for diversity policy implementations
4.1 Review of diversity policy:
Following are the procedures in which the policy of the concerned company is expected
to implement:
a) Equality- Under this policy framework, our company creates an environment of equality for
its diverse workforce, where each of the employees feel equally enabled and valued irrespective
of their intrinsic and cultural diversities and where they are assessed and awarded based on their
capability and contribution to the concerned organization. The employees of this organization
are valued and rewarded on the basis of their professional capabilities and not on other attributes.
This gives them the scope to work independently, without being intimidated by other employees
and without shying away from showing their inherent characteristics.
b) Provision of training and skill development- Under the diversity policy of the company,
each employee working for the organizations is entitles to their relevant skill development and
other capacity augmenting programs, irrespective of their personal and professional diversities.
The provision of such programs is not based on their personal diversities, rather such trainings
will be provided in order to utilize the diversities of the employees in such that they can
understand the goals of the company as well as the needs of their clientele better (Lindsey et al.,
2015).
c) Training to senior management- Under the diversity policy of the company, not only the
employees of the company but also the higher management of the organization gets training on
the aspects of diversity. The management is included under the training proovisions in order to
understand the benefits of the presence of diversity in their workforce, in the aspect of affecting