Workplace Diversity

Introduction

ABC InfoTech is a software designing company based in New South Wales, Australia. It

basically deals in designing, developing, and modifying antivirus software. ABC InfoTech is

a huge organization but it lacks far behind in diversity. ABC InfoTech does not hire disabled

people, Aboriginal people, or people from culturally and linguistically diverse groups. This

assignment focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of diversity on a company’s growth

and environment.

Employee diversity at ABC InfoTech

Workplace diversity refers to employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds

irrespective of the gender, disability, or languages, which shares different experiences, beliefs

and backgrounds (Roberson, 2019). A culturally diverse organization includes employees

from the CALD background, disabled people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders, gender

equity including gays and LGBTI’s, and intergenerational workforce (Australian Criminal

Intelligence Commission, 2019). During my 1st employee Survey at ABC InfoTech, I was

assigned the role to analyze the cultural diversity of the developing and designing department

of ABC InfoTech. I analyzed that ABC InfoTech had very less employee’s diversity, as they

believed that greater diversity encourages greater conflicts and communication barriers in the

organization.

Advantages of workplace diversity

ABC InfoTech had fewer ideologies and views regarding innovation and improvement

strategies. It has been reported that organization having a diverse group of employees tends to

originate numerous ideas and views that collectively leads to innovation and enhanced

productivity (Ozgen, et al., 2017). The internal sources of an organization determines the

abilities and strengths of that organization to compete against the rivals and market stressors.

ABC InfoTech has a highly proficient and competitive staff but their scope of growth is
limited to their own culture, and they do not acknowledge the importance of designing

programs relevant to the complete set of population. The company believes that having a

male and female staff can sufficiently create diversity in the organization but they do not

understand the importance of ideas and views from multiple viewpoints and cultural beliefs.

It has been reported that workplace performance can be beneficial for the organization and

employees for their personal growth with visible changes in the attitude and attribute toward

success (Ellemers & Rink, 2016).

Improving effectiveness through diversity

The promotion of diversity in the workforce has many fundamental advantages. However, an

individual need to approach the recruitment process globally, as it is more difficult to retain

employees than to recruit them. This particularly applies to businesses in less varied areas

that may be separated from the local minority staff. It might be needed for an individual to

play a more effective part in assisting them to adapt to workplace culture and their fresh

groups (Lindsey et al., 2015). Actions towards increasing the improvement of effectiveness

of workplace with the account of diversity are listed as follows:

Mentoring fresh and high potential employees: Establishing a management team that

appreciates the variety of its employees begins on the ground level (Mone & London, 2018).

Firms excelling in diversity management employ official mentoring programs to define and

nurture staff with high potential. The future leadership team will be able to influence the

current management team to develop processes, programs that enhance employee

engagement and loyalty by establishing a future pool of leaders that represents the diverse

cultures, values, races, genders, sexual orientation and religious beliefs of employees in

general.

Exposure of employees: The EUI research shows that various teams tend to be more

imaginative, to generate more alternatives, to think out of the box. They find that a variety of
teams are more challenging to handle, needing more flexibility and cultural sensitivity from

the higher authorities (Bharwani & Jauhari, 2017). It not only questions their own convictions

to allow high-potential staff to experience an extensive range of company circumstances but

sensitizes them to understand the value and significance of the staff.

Empowering diversified teams for addressing challenges of business: When working in

various teams, conflicts are normal, especially if certain values are considered to undermine

the overall objective. HR leaders should give the team the necessary instruments to solve any

problems by themselves, in situations such as these. The group leader, for instance, should

learn to know the dispute patterns of other employees and assist them comprehend and create

the use of more efficient methods. The ability of the team to negotiate can contribute to the

team's current and future success through principled negotiations and planning (Chin et al.,

2016).
References

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. (2019). Workplace diversity. Retrieved from

https://www.acic.gov.au/about-us/workplace-diversity

Bharwani, S., & Jauhari, V. (2017). An exploratory study of competencies required to

cocreate memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. In Hospitality

Marketing and Consumer Behavior (pp. 159-185). Apple Academic Press.

Chin, J. L., Desormeaux, L., & Sawyer, K. (2016). Making way for paradigms of diversity

leadership. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 68(1), 49.

Ellemers, N., & Rink, F. (2016). Diversity in work groups. Current Opinion in

Psychology, 11, 49-53.

Lindsey, A., King, E., Hebl, M., & Levine, N. (2015). The impact of method, motivation, and

empathy on diversity training effectiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(3), 605-

617.

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance

management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

Ozgen, C., Nijkamp, P., & Poot, J. (2017). The elusive effects of workplace diversity on

innovation. Papers in Regional Science, 96, S29-S49.

Roberson, Q. M. (2019). Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research

agenda. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 69-

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