Workforce Diversity Management: Challenges and Opportunities Report

This report examines the increasing importance of diversity management in modern businesses, particularly in multinational firms. It highlights how historical discrimination and lack of diversity management negatively impacted employee performance and organizational culture. The report emphasizes the shift towards recognizing the value of teamwork and inclusivity, driven by globalization and changing societal norms. It further explores the challenges and opportunities that new managers face in the 21st century regarding workforce diversity, including resistance to diversity, training diverse workforces, recruitment biases, and ensuring the safety and well-being of female employees. The report concludes that managing diversity effectively is crucial for enhancing productivity, fostering a positive work environment, and achieving organizational goals, while also noting the importance of ethical considerations and legal frameworks in promoting workplace equality.

WRITTEN PROBLEM
BASED
ASSESSMENT

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................1
Diversity has been given importance lately.......................................................................................1
Workforce diversity challenges and opportunities confronting new managers in the 21st century..1
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................2

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INTRODUCTION
In companies all around the world, people have come from different cultural and
regional backgrounds (Bell, et. al 2011). Companies have to manage the diversity in a better
way so as to make sure that they have a positive environment within the organisation.
Previously when the impact of globalisation was not present so much, companies were slow
in responding towards diversity management. This has become a serious issue in the modern
day multinational firms. In the past it was seen that women were not understood to be an
effective employees. But in the 21st century the role of the female workers within the
organisations have increased. Previously it was seen that women were not allowed to reach at
the top of the organisations. Glass ceiling approach was taking place in most industries. But
today they have managed to get at the top position of the various organisations. This has also
become possible due to the fact that organisations have understood the importance of
managing the diversity at the workplace. This report highlights the reason due to which
diversity has been given so much attention lately. It also showcases the workforce diversity
challenges and opportunities faced by new managers in the 21st century.
Diversity has been given importance lately
Diversity has become one of the most important issues in almost all the industry. In
multinational firms diversity management has been understood as the most important aspect
in their operations (Cascio, 2018). But this was not so few decades back. There were large
factors of discrimination that were prevalent in the businesses all around the world. Diversity
was not supported in most of the workplaces and the people at these places were partitioned
in groups. Mainly from same cultural backgrounds did not allowed people from other cultural
or ethnic background to grow. This remained the challenge for many years. Such practices
brought negative impact on the performance of the employees as well as have made the
environment unhealthy.
But in the later part of the 20th century it was understood by the organisations that team
culture as become important to achieve goals on time (Ewoh, 2013). This has forced the
organisation to make plan so as to manage the diversity at the workplace. The most important
aspect of the modern day business is to make everyone work together irrespective of their
cultural and language barriers (Barak, 2016). It was seen that people who were minorities

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always faced difficulty in adapting the culture. It reduced the efficiency of the firm. In the
later stage of the 20th century this became major problems since variety of people came to the
organisations from across the globe. The problem which was not understood as important in
the earlier part of the century became an urgency in the later part. In many companies when
the study was conducted between the employees regarding their performance. Details
revealed that many employees were not satisfied within the organisation just because they
were not given importance at the workplace. Study of organisational behaviour helped the
managers to understand the need of managing diversity at the workplace as it was understood
as a factor that impacts the performance of employees. It was understood in the later stage
that managing diversity had a greater impact on the operations of the firm.
It was not just that the diversity was not managed in terms of cultural and ethnic backgrounds
but the differences were also very deep in terms of gender. In the starting, managers did not
promoted female employees at top positions. Most of the female staffs experienced glass
ceiling at the workplace as it was understood that they do not have the ability to lead the team
or to make highly effective strategic decisions (Lynch, 2017). This mind-set of the people
sitting at the higher levels of organisation restricted the growth of employees within the
industry. This affected the female employees in the negative sense as they were highly
demotivated and left their jobs at the early stages of their life. It can also be understood by the
fact that employees performs better when they see their growth within the organisation but
the glass ceiling was an obstacle in the business (Thomas, 2011). When many female
entrepreneurs came up in various parts of the world then most part of the world understood
that they also have leadership skills. Women empowerment played a very vital role in this.
In this regards very crucial role was played by the governments all around the world. The
laws implemented by the government played very important part in giving women their rights
(Syed, 2011). If all these would have been done years back then the whole issues would have
been addressed in the early stages of industrialisation. When ethics became the crucial aspect
of the business then it became important for the organisation to manage diversity (Thomas,
2012).
Workforce diversity challenges and opportunities confronting new managers in the 21st
century
There are several types of diversity that exist within the workplace. It has become essential
for the companies to make sure that they align all the employees as one unit (Guillaume, et

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al., 2013). In this process new managers in the 21st century are facing many kinds of
challenges (Deane, 2013). Diversity adds new opportunities for the companies. This is due to
the fact that diversity gives firms to add new ways of thing in its decision making process.
When diversity is managed within the organisation, then more productivity can be achieved
by the firm. It is to be understood that new managers are facing various kinds of challenges.
Some of the challenges that are faced by the modern day managers are dangerous for the
productivity of the firm (Castellano, 2013).
One of the biggest challenges faced by the companies is resistance towards accepting the
diversity. There are many people inside the firm who are not ready for accepting the diversity
at the workplace. It becomes a difficult job for the managers to maintain the diversity in the
case when some of the people are not ready to accept the diversity (Saxena, 2014). This
negative mentality can degrade the morale and has serious impact on the productivity of the
firm. A serious of workshop needs to be done by the manager so as to teach everyone about
the benefits related to working as a team irrespective of the differences they have.
Other than this company has faced serious problems related with training of diverse
workforce (Garmise, 2014). This is due to the fact that there are many kinds of language
barriers between different staffs. Providing them training can be a difficult task. People
within the organisation have different set of understanding due to their cultural background.
This restricts them from getting trained through common program and making a person
selective training program can be a difficult task. It is also to be made sure that the people
from different parts of the world had different experience and hence they have a different
perception about diversity.
The biggest problem that is faced by the new managers is related with the selection and
recruitment of staffs (Simons and Rowland, 2011). Since the rate of unemployment is
increasing at much faster rate. In the increased unemployment ratio people from the local
cultural backgrounds do not want that employees get recruited from other cultural
backgrounds (Bedi, Lakra, Gupta, 2014). This is a setback to the managers who are making
efforts to increase the diversity at the workplace.
In many of the government firms it is seen that for promotion, the first preference is given to
the people that are coming from a particular ethnic or cultural backgrounds. This demotivates
the employees from other cultural backgrounds. It is not healthy for the environment of the
companies as the other employee who does not get promotions starts feeling envy from the

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other specific diverse people who got promotions. This is a problematic situation for the
managers as they have to think of making the process that promotes people based on the
performance.
In regards to the female employees new managers are facing challenges like the increasing
violence at the workplace as well as making abusive remarks against the female employees.
In many of the cases managers faces problems related to the women’s safety at the
workplace. Providing them safe environment has become a serious challenge for the new
managers at the firm. In an insecure environment female staffs are unable to work and hence
lead to reduction in the number of employees working at the workplace.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that in the modern day business
environment it has become important for the companies to manage diversity. Managing
diversity was not considered as an important task within the organisation. This led to
decrease in the productivity of the staffs which was ultimately affecting the operations of the
firm. After a long period of evaluation it was understood that diversity management is a
crucial aspect of the modern day business. Glass ceiling has remained a problem for the
female workers in many industries. This did not allow improving gender related diversity at
the workplace. For the new manager workforce diversity management has brought many
challenges and opportunities. It is confronting their management in the 21st century which is
having negative impact on the operations of the firm.
REFERENCES
Barak, M.E.M., (2016) Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.

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Bedi, P., Lakra, P., Gupta, E., (2014) Workforce Diversity Management: The biggest
challenge or opportunity For 21st Century Organisations. [Online]. Available at:
http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol16-issue4/Version-3/P01643102107.pdf.
[Accessed on 10 April 2018].
Bell, M.P., Özbilgin, M.F., Beauregard, T.A. and Sürgevil, O., (2011) Voice, silence, and
diversity in 21st century organizations: Strategies for inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender employees. Human resource management, 50(1), pp.131-146.
Cascio, W., (2018) Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Castellano, W.G., (2013) Practices for engaging the 21st century workforce: Challenges of
talent management in a changing workplace. FT Press.
Deane, B.R., 2013. Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion(Vol. 33). John Wiley & Sons.
Ewoh, A.I., (2013) Managing and valuing diversity: Challenges to public managers in the
21st century. Public Personnel Management, 42(2), pp.107-122.
Garmise, S., (2014) People and the competitive advantage of place: Building a workforce for
the 21st century. Routledge.
Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Woods, S.A., Sacramento, C.A. and West, M.A., 2013.
Getting diversity at work to work: What we know and what we still don't know. Journal of
occupational and organizational psychology, 86(2), pp.123-141.
Lynch, F.R., (2017) The diversity machine: The drive to change the white male workplace.
Routledge.
Saxena, A., (2014) Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia Economics
and Finance, 11, pp.76-85.
Simons, S.M. and Rowland, K.N., 2011. Diversity and its impact on organizational
performance: The influence of diversity constructions on expectations and outcomes. Journal
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Syed, J., (2011) Akbar's multiculturalism: lessons for diversity management in the 21st
century. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de
l'Administration, 28(4), pp.402-412.

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Thomas, K.M. ed., (2012) Diversity resistance in organizations. Psychology Press.
Thomas, R.R., 2011. The management of workforce diversity: A continuing
evolution. Employment Relations Today, 38(3), pp.1-9.