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Work Force Diversity
Work Force Diversity
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A PROJECT REPORT ON
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the world is submerged in a wide
range of demographic trends which have the potential to radically change the
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What is diversity?
Diversity to us means all aspects in which people differ from one another. This
includes both the visible and relatively easily demonstrable personal
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characteristics such as gender, age and ethnicity, as well as the less visible
personal characteristics, such as competencies, needs and wants, work styles
and character traits. Each employee has his or her own, unique combination of
such characteristics. Another definition describes diversity as creating high
performing organizations through valuing and using all the talents of employees
of different groups. Regardless of how diversity is defined, it is an issue that is
sweeping the nation. If the corporate society does not address the issue by
learning how to manage diversity, they will fail.
Diversity Management
Managing diversity is one of the most important challenges faced by managers
and their organizations. In todays work environment, co-workers are likely to
be of different gender, age, religion, cultural background, race and ethnicity.
They also differ in terms of lifestyle, choices available, perspectives, attitudes,
value system, beliefs, behaviors, expectations, skills and experiences. These
issues are not just about discriminatory practices but they modify the nature and
demands placed on leadership and management and bring into prominence the
concept of diversity. How well or how prepared managers are able to invest in
the concept of diversity will impact not just on work issues but also on
sensitivity to customers needs, legal compliance, business ethical issues,
profitability and even social cohesion.
Diversity management is a strategic process to manage a diverse workforce-
including the fight against stereotypes, prejudice and all kind of discrimination
due to the individual perceptions and assumptions- in the manner to maximize
the benefit and minimize barriers of different opinions, behavior and attitudes
of human beings within a company.
Diversity
Managemen
t
An often heard argument to avoid having to put energy into diversity is that it
only leads to misunderstanding, undesired formation of groups, communication
problems and conflicts in the work force. When put like this, paying attention
to diversity seems a useless investment.
But demographic developments cannot be ignored. In situations like labor
shortage, organizations cannot permit themselves to exclude a substantial part
of the labor force. Diversity in personnel has different advantages pertaining to
business economics:
Attraction for a wider group of customers: more people can identify with the
organization. This could increase your turnover;
Recruit broadly : When you have job openings, work to get a diverse applicant
pool. Avoid relying on referrals from current employees, since this tends to
produce candidates similar to your present workforce.
Provide orientation and training for minorities: Making the transition from
outsider to insider can be particularly difficult for nontraditional employees.
People have a lot of viewpoints and having people from many backgrounds and
places in life brings a lot of those viewpoints into the mix. In some situations, a
lot of viewpoints give us a lot of options. Plus, since there are many different
viewpoints and environments in the workers, there are many opportunities for
these different viewpoints to come into the planning of strategic initiatives,
allowing the firm to serve a wider group of consumers and interests. The
Various .advantages of having a diverse workforce are the following;
ACCENTURE DIVERSITY
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GOOGLE DIVERSITY
"Diversity plays a large role in the way we're developing our engineering
organization around the world. We're building a large worldwide office
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INFOSYS DIVERSITY
Globalization has changed the character of the modern workplace global
companys employee base should reflect the diversity of the world it serves.
Infosys strives to employ people representing the widest possible variety of
nationalities, cultures, genders and gender identities, sexual orientations,
employment histories, and levels of physical ability. In doing so, the company
is able to recruit new employees from all available global talent pools and
provide paths to employment to all members of world societies, including
talented individuals from groups who may have in the past been
underrepresented within the IT industry. Within such a diverse company, people
bring to the workplace contrasting opinions and worldviews. As these people
interact, they develop new ideas, methods, and perspectives. Infosys recognizes
and promotes this power of diversity to drive innovation.
Infosys actively fosters inclusivity across all of its business units and in every
one of its company offices. It encourages all employees to focus on the
commonalities they share and leverage their differences towards productive
teamwork. Inclusivity ultimately makes for a more informed and sensitive
employee base that is better able to serve clients.
Infosys was the first Indian IT company to establish a company office to
manage and drive all company initiatives dealing with diversity and inclusion.
Today they have employees from over 70 countries. Women constitute more
than 32% of their workforce.
Infosys Women Inclusivity Network (IWIN) promotes a gender-sensitive work
environment. IWIN recognizes the unique aspirations and needs of women. It
provides avenues for vocational, personal and psychological counsel to enable
professional and personal development. Infosys won the first NASSCOM-India
Today corporate award for excellence in gender inclusivity in 2007. Infosys
actively seeks to hire and train persons with disabilities . In 2006 and 2007,
Infosys BPO received the Helen Keller award for the best employer from the
National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP).
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TCS DIVERSITY
Diversity in companies is no longer about being melting pots, but being salad
bowls," according to Grady Searcy. "We want people to retain their identity yet
be integrated into the company Currently, 7.5 per cent of our workforce
consists of non-Indians," said Mr. S PADMANABHAN,EXECUTIVE VICE
PRESIDENT and head Global human resource, TCS said while speaking at the
NASSCOM HR Summit on `The War for Talent' held recently in Chennai. In a
session on managing cross-cultural teams, speakers emphasized that managing
a diverse workforce is no longer a choice, but an imperative.
The Indian workplace is no different from global MNCs.TCS has announced
plans to hire about 4,000 people from across the world.
Geographical culture
A diverse organization is shaped or influenced by the basic corporate culture,
which comes from the vision and mission of the founder-promoter. Then there's
the influence of the geographical culture. The company is largely influenced by
the personal culture of the people at the mid-management and senior
management levels. Then, surprisingly, it is also shaped by the client culture.
Outlining some of the challenges for companies opting for an increasingly
diverse and global workforce, Kalyanaraman said that as workers are
increasingly relocating and migration is on the rise, organizations need to
devise retention strategies with "a passionate focus on individual, team and
geo-wise expectation charts." He recommends that companies should conduct a
deep study of issues such as worldwide compensation and aspiration
benchmarks. "No two countries have the same retirement benefits," said
Padmanabhan of TCS. Therefore, policies have to be diverse enough to
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Source:-Kristiansand University
WIPRO DIVERSITY
Wipro launched of its Women of Wipro (WoW) initiative, coinciding with the
international Women's Day. Wipro honored its women workforce with the title
of 'Green Ambassadors' besides felicitating women achievers.
The WoW initiative has been launched as a chapter of the Wipro's Diversity
Council, as the company's Green Ambassadors will influence a change in the
environment by undertaking various projects that emphasize on the aspect of
'Green'.
The initiative will be driven by the Green Ambassadors at a personal level.
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WoW will also work towards creating visibility for its female leadership, both
internally and externally. Building sustainable and growing networks that
contribute to the success of business, the community and self-development
would be the other highlight of initiative.
Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said: "In Corporate India, I have been seeing
very positive shifts in the last few decades that have made it easier for women
to contribute to organizational growth. There are many instances where the so-
called glass ceiling has been shattered. There is no doubt that having more
women in an organization can help in making it more profitable."
Eco Bags specially made for women employees were given away on the
occasion. The 'Eco-Bag' contains quick and easy list of green steps, called
"Shades of Green". Going forward, the WOW charter will include several
initiatives that have a significant social impact and where women can play a
catalytic role in ushering change. The Core Diversity Council has been set up to
breathe life into these initiatives so that they don't remain buried in a
PowerPoint presentation. The council consists of representatives from every
function at a senior level.
DIVERSITY PAYS
As a nation we have much to be proud of. Throughout the rich history of our
nation, women have occupied positions of leadership, and have made a mark on
the world stage. However, we have much to worry about as well. Female
infanticide and low levels of female literacy indicate that many sections of our
society are yet to accord an equal status to women.
So what is the connection? It is simple but important, businesses in India have
a responsibility to send a strong message by their actions - everybody counts.
This will not be easy. How do we get there if our start point is three women in a
workforce of hundreds? As always, we have to begin at the top. If the captains
don't get it; then we shouldn't start! Let's not forget, in this talent scarce market
companies (should) want to attract people of all backgrounds, promote gender
diversity and spread the talent net as wide as possible. And frankly, once a
company builds a diverse team the pay back is through superior performance.
Workforce diversity is an obligation to shareholders, to society and to
employees.
Effective diversity measures and evaluation processes that determine the ROI
of diversity management can provide an organization with invaluable
information to support key business imperatives--such as the impact of
diversity training and areas of improvement needed for recruitment strategies.
Further, diversity initiatives that receive public acknowledgment through
awards (e.g., Diversity In Top 50 Companies for Diversity) help attract bright
talent and positively affect company brand and reputation.
Questionnaires
1. What are the sources of diversity in a workplace?
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3. What are the net new entrants into the workforce between 1994 and
2007?
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Categories Yes No
Employees 25 75
5. Surveying 120 companies, for the knowledge about the benefits of the Diversity
Management concept
During the making of this project we crossed with different limitations. Some of
them are as follows:
CONCLUSION
The extent to which managers recognize diversity and its potential advantages and
disadvantages defines an organizations approach to managing the diversity. No
organization in this world of globalization would survive without workforce
diversity. It is the duty of the management to critically evaluate the benefits of
workforce diversity in their organization. On the other hand the management
should put in place conditions which would enhance the workforce diversity in
their organizations, more especially in their strategies formulation on the diversity
of workforce. Hence, with the diversity of the workforce, the organization would
be internally and externally competitive. Although, the process of diversification of
organizations has six stages: denial; recognition; acceptance;
appreciation; valuing; and utilization. It is believed that organizations should put in
place strategies to enhance workforce diversity. In terms of organizational learning,
organizations are still stuck on the problem of getting people to value diversity and
have not yet determined ways to utilize and exploit it . It is the approach to
diversity, not the diversity itself which determines the actual positive and negative
outcomes. Managing diversity in organizations absolutely dependent upon the
acceptance of some primary objectives to which employees are willing to commit,
such as the survival of the firm. In today's fast-paced work environment a
successful organization is one where diversity is the norm and not the exception.
Workforce diversity can have both positive and negative outcomes in
organizations. We argued that an important consideration while examining both
these outcomes of team diversity is the demographic context in which teams
function. diversity behaviors in organizations is incomplete without acknowledging
the role of a broader organizational context in shaping these behaviors.
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