Managing Workplace Diversity: A Report on CoffeeVille

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MANAGING DIVERSITY AT WORKPLACE
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Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1............................................................................................................... 3
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1A: APPLICATION OF DIVERSITY POLICY OF COFFEEVILLE....................3
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1B: CRITICAL REVIEW OF DIVERSITY POLICY OF COFFEEVILLE..............4
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 2:.............................................................................................................. 6
ASSESSMENT 3: POSTER TO PROMOTE THE BENEFITS OF DIVERSITY TO OTHERS.......................10
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 11
REFERENCE LIST........................................................................................................................... 12
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INTRODUCTION
Workplace diversity means differences between the collection of people due to individual
differences in their thinking style, personality, skills, and capability. The report on managing
workplace diversity includes the application of diversity policy of the CoffeeVille. The report
also includes the critical analysis of workplace diversity in Coffeeville. Further, it includes the
strategies to ensure that organizational diversity is well understood and adopted in the
Coffeeville for promoting the coordination in the work team (Rice, 2015). Also, it includes the
procedure for grievances handling or harassment allegation. Workplace diversity brings both
negative and positive result in the organization. It can motivate and encourage the people to
improve their performance but it also brings conflict and other management issues.
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1A: APPLICATION OF DIVERSITY POLICY OF
COFFEEVILLE
Diversity policy means promoting equality and diversity in the workplace. Diversity policy
ensures that the employees are treated fairly and equally in the work environment by looking
at some factors in the organization such as age, gender, disability, race, religion, belief or sexual
orientation. Workplace diversity has many advantages such as it increases motivation; attract a
pool of applicants across the world, proper understanding of employees as well as clients.
There are some organizations that encourage workplace diversity so that the organization gets
the different types of people with different background, skills, and talents that help in building a
positive work environment (Lambert, 2016). The main aim of bringing workplace diversity is
that it brings innovation, improves the service to the client and also enhances the working
environment. Workplace diversity is categorized into two categories:
1. Inherent diversity: related to demographic characteristics of the individual such as age,
race or gender.
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2. Acquired diversity: means factors such as skills, competencies, education, knowledge,
and values.
CoffeeVille success is also dependent on the people who belong to different culture and
background. The information that a manager required to demonstrate the workplace diversity
can be obtained by collecting the relevant data or identifying the areas of concern that requires
quick attention of the management (Hunt et al., 2015). With the aim of identifying workplace
diversity, the management can review the demographic factors such as age, gender or
ethnicity. The organization can identify workplace diversity by asking the employees the
following questions:
Does management find it difficult to hire the employees for the particular department?
Is management is partial towards anyone demographics?
Is management is partial related to any leave policy or work hours?
The relevant information related to workplace diversity can only be obtained through
employees. Employees can identify the workplace issues through the training policy, leave
policy, dress code, health, and hygiene policy, remuneration, hours of work and many more.
ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 1B: CRITICAL REVIEW OF DIVERSITY POLICY OF
COFFEEVILLE
A critical review of diversity policy of CoffeeVille can be observed through remuneration and
selection, a probation period, working hours, leave policy, dress code, hygiene, and food safety,
and equal employment opportunity and discrimination and sexual harassment.
The remuneration and selection policy of the Coffeeville provides equal opportunity to
candidates but they are selected based on the knowledge and skills they possess.
The policy of probation period is that it gives equal time period to every individual but in case if
the employee performs lower than the expectation of the manager or top management, the
employer can even terminate their job with one week notice (Kirton and Greene, 2015).
In the working hours, it can be observed that the management can differentiate one individual
with another by providing those shifts according to their convenience. This decision of the
management can be taken from the favoritism.
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The leave policy of the CoffeeVille includes rules and regulations for annual leave, personal
leave, public holidays and other leaves. While the workplace diversity can be noticed as public
holidays are entitled according to the place of location of CaffeeVille and not according to the
employee’s native place (Phillips et al., 2016).
It is expected from the employees of CoffeeVille that they will follow the dress code accordingly
to represent the business. It may happen that some employees are not comfortable with
trousers and polo shirts due to their different cultural background.
Cultural diversity may have the impact on hygiene and food safety rules such as there are some
people who belong to the area where the most temperature is very low so they do not pay
attention to refrigerated everything thus this can increase the wastage of food and vice versa is
also true.
Uniformity in providing equal employment opportunity to all the candidates is applicable in the
CoffeeVille. But workplace diversity can be noticed through experience, education, skills, and
competencies. Managing workplace diversity is like developing the environment in which all
employees get equal opportunity to showcase their full potential (Harvey and Allard, 2015).
Workplace diversity can bring discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying. But due to the
strict policy of the organization creates an environment which is free from discrimination,
sexual harassment, and bullying. Discrimination policy states that any discrimination or
harassment cannot be entertained and can result in action which can even be dismissal.
Thus uniform practices adopted by the CoffeeVille may sometimes be ineffective for the people
belonging to a different culture. There should be different practices for different people but the
manager has to make sure that it does not bring any conflict and disputes amongst the
employees be adopting different practices. The organization should respect their religion, caste,
culture or region while dealing with them. This gives them a sense of belongingness that they
are an important part of the organization and this will increase their performance and profit as
well (Rasul and Rogger, 2015).
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ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 2:
a) Implement strategies to ensure that diversity is understood and respected in the work
team
The intended strategies of CoffeeVille to ensure that diversity is understood and respected in
the work team can be as follows:
1. Prioritizing communication
It is very essential for the manager to communicate the workplace diversity effectively with
their employees. The policies, rules, and practices of the CoffeeVille should be designed in a
way that all the employees must understand the information. They can use pictures and
symbols to deal with the language barrier (Barak, 2016). There should be proper signage above
the wash area and symbols and signs for washing hands, maintaining hygiene and cleanliness,
etc.
2. Treating each employee as an individual
The manager of CoffeeVille must understand the needs of the employee as an individual and
not on the basis of assumptions. Assumptions about the employees may create dissatisfaction.
The manager must assess and judge the individual on his success and failure rather than their
background or culture.
3. Motivate people to work in a diverse group
Diverse work team helps the employees to know each other and their values. This helps in
coordinating their efforts and makes a sense of belongingness amongst the employees. The
diverse team ensures that all the actions such as discipline should be followed in uniformly so
that they do not feel the employer is biased among the employees.
4. The standard set of rules
The employer of CoffeeVille must set standard and uniform rules for all groups regardless of
their background. The rules of the CoffeeVille must be standard so that each employee will
contribute more to the objective of the CoffeeVille (Wheeler, 2017).
5. The employer must be open minded
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The employer must encourage and recognize to employees that their cultural or background
difference is not the only with value to the organization. The employees should have a diverse
range of perspective and talents that can contribute in to achieve the organizational goals.
6. Flexible work arrangements
A flexible work arrangement shows the value of fairness and justice to employees. Flexible work
arrangements include options for part-time schedules, job sharing, modified their daily work
schedules, etc. Such type of choice provides insights to employees how they can accomplish
their work in the best possible manner.
Such strategies of CoffeeVille ensure that diversity is understood and respected in a work team.
The main purpose of adopting these strategies is to shift the mindset and attitude of both
employers as well as employees.
b) Demonstrate compliance with procedure for handling complaints or harassment
allegations
i. OUTLINE FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE
The complaint process starts internally when employees are having a problem or
due to any other reason such as unfair treatment or harassment in the workplace.
The formal procedure followed in the CoffeeVille for handling complaints is as
follows:
Step I: The person can either directly say to the offender that such practices are
wrong and against the business policy if they feel comfortable and if not they also
can tell the manager but he must have written the proof. The employee must
describe the complaint in the detailed form which includes dates, location and even
efforts which they take to resolve the conflict (Ateke and Kalu, 2016).
Step II: With the aim of resolving the conflict, the manager has a discussion with
both the parties so that they can come at the right decision. Even if unwelcome or
unpleasant behavior continues, the employee can go to the supervisor or the
manager.
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Step III: Even if the employee does not feel comfortable or inappropriate he can
directly contact with another relevant senior manager for final decision and
consideration. The complaint at this level should be in written form with proof
attached to it. Even the employee has the right to file the complaint with the
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the Australian Human
Rights Commission, or take actions under the Fair Work Act 209.
The informal procedure for handling complaints is as follows:
The employees should resolve their conflict at their own level. At this stage, they
both try to settle their complaints before the formal procedure of the complaint
handling starts. If they are unable to do so then the process continues as a formal
procedure (Ogbeide et al., 2017).
ii. IDENTIFY AND OUTLINE KEY FEATURES OF RELEVANT CURRENT LEGISLATION
REGARDING:
Harassment or bullying is the unlawful practice to abuse the employees on the basis
of age, religion, culture or for any other matter in the workplace. Following
legislation are adopted by the CoffeeVille to ensure that there will be no such
practices adopted in the organization.
Civil Rights Act (1964): The Civil Rights Act provides protection to employees
working in the organization against any discrimination such as age, racial, sex, color,
religion or other related reasons (Dreiband et al., 2015).
Age Discrimination Act (1975): The act protects the employees or applicant of above
the age of 40 years from any discrimination in the recruitment, compensation,
promotion or any terms of employment.
Disability Act (1990): This law includes several other disability-related laws. The
main aim of this law is to provide the same opportunities as other people to people
with disabilities (U.S. Department of Labor, 2019).
Human rights: There are several laws enforced by the Office of Human Rights (OHR)
to protect the employees from unlawful discrimination. The laws covered in human
rights are:
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Civil Right Act (1964)
Disabilities Act (1990)
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1975)
Equal Pay Act (1963)
Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978)
Equal Employment Opportunity Act (1972): This law prohibits any employment
discrimination in the hiring, recruiting or in its program on the basis of age, color,
religion, caste or any other reason (Connolly Jr., et al., 2018).
These laws and regulation provide protection to both employer and employee against
any legal actions. Thus the CoffeeVille must develop its programs and policies according
to the legislation set by the government to help the people inequality and diversity. The
application of these laws brings a positive environment and suitable conditions for the
people working in the organization.
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ASSESSMENT 3: POSTER TO PROMOTE THE BENEFITS OF DIVERSITY TO
OTHERS
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CONCLUSION
Therefore it can be concluded that workplace diversity refers to the differences between the
people due to their different background, culture, age, religion, etc. In the CoffeeVille, the
employees belong to different cultures, background, age, religion, etc. But the organization
follows the same procedure and policy for all employees which may bring uniformity as well as
the situation of conflict. The report includes the application of diversity policy in CoffeeVille and
critical review of diversity policy in the organization. The report also includes strategies to
ensure that the policy of workplace diversity is well understood in the work team. Further, it
includes the formal and informal procedure for handling complaints and different legations to
deal with workplace diversity.
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