Diversity management

DINESH PANT
FAR WESTERN UNIVERSITY

Abstract
Diversity management is a process within an organization that promotes workplace
diversity and inclusion. Putting policies and strategies in place for hiring,
management, training, and other areas is part of this process. Race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political
beliefs, or other ideologies, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function,
education, age, color, national origin, geographic background, language, lifestyle,
and so on are all examples of diversity. However, in today's economy, maximizing
and capitalizing on workplace diversity is a critical issue for management. Because
Nepal is one of the world's most diverse countries, managing diversity can be more
difficult. Diversity management issues include communication, resistance to change,
increased tension, and diversity in the workplace policies implementation, fairness,
and inclusion.
Diversity management
Diversity management is an organizational process that promotes workplace diversity
and inclusion. This process entails putting policies and strategies in place for hiring,
management, training, and other areas. The objectives of diversity management are to
promote fairness and equality while reaping the benefits of a diverse organization.
Diversity management entails planning and implementing organizational systems and
practices to manage people in order to maximize the potential benefits of diversity
while minimizing its potential disadvantages (Cox, 1993). Through specific policies
and programs, diversity management refers to organizational actions that aim to
promote greater inclusion of employees from diverse backgrounds into an
organization's structure. Organizations are implementing diversity management
strategies in response to the increasing diversity of the global workforce. Because of
technological advancements, businesses can now hire and manage employees from all
over the world and in different time zones. Companies are developing specific
programs and policies to improve employee inclusion and promotion, as well as the
retention of employees from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Areas and research issues of diversity management

The aspects of diversity typically include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation,
socio-economic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other
ideologies, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, age, color,
national origin, geographic background, language, lifestyle, life experiences,
organization function and level, physical characteristics, religion and spirituality,
greater adaptability and flexibility in a rapidly changing marketplace etc. Companies
are diverse primarily as a result of supplier diversity, CEOs actively engaged in
diversity efforts, technology used as a diversity tool to facilitate diversity and
mentoring programs, affinity groups/business resource groups for workers who fit
into a variety of categories, and a flexible work environment. Individual differences
will benefit the workplace by giving it a competitive advantage and increasing
productivity (Rolla & Kulandai, 2018). Human resource professionals must deal
effectively with issues such as communication, adaptability, and change in order for
an organization with a diverse workforce to function effectively. Managing diversity
is a complex managerial process that poses a significant organizational challenge. As
a result, maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity is a critical issue for
management in today's economy (Rolla & Kulandai, 2018).

Issues of diversity management

As Nepal is one of the most diverse countries in the world, managing diversity can be
more challenging. Studies can cover Nepalese perspective of unity and inclusion in
diversity, sustaining a diverse workforce, overcoming reverse discrimination against
member of majority group, focus on dimensions like sexual orientation, physical
disability and age diversity because cultural and gender diversity has been studies
many times linking with different issues. Some of the issues of diversity management
are:

1. Communication

For diversity programs to be successful, perception, cultural, and linguistic barriers

must be overcome. Ineffective key objective communication leads to confusion, a
lack of teamwork, and low morale.

2. Resistance to change

There will always be employees who refuse to accept that their workplace's social and
cultural makeup is changing. Workplace diversity initiatives may not provide the
intended benefits to the company if the company does not handle opposition properly.
3. Increased tension

People from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds may have very different
perspectives on lifestyle, religion, and politics, which can cause tension and conflict
when these ideas are introduced into the workplace.

4. Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies

This can be the overriding challenge to all diversity advocates. Armed with the results
of employee assessments and research data, they must build and implement a
customized strategy to maximize the effects of diversity in the workplace for their
particular organization.

5. Fairness

One of the key challenges in dealing with diversity is ensuring each worker is treated
fairly. This does not mean we can treat everyone the same, as different individuals
have different needs.

6. Inclusion

Inclusion of all employees is frequently a difficult aspect of diversity management.

People frequently divide themselves into groups with which they are most
comfortable. It is the manager's responsibility to assist employees in integrating so
that the company and its employees benefit from associations.

Conclusion

Sourcing and recruiting diverse candidates is a difficult task, but it has been shown to
increase talent pool, performance, and employee satisfaction. It is not enough to
recognize the value of diversity; businesses must also make efforts to incorporate it
into their culture. Organizations should create and support a culture that maximizes
the benefits of diversity and use that culture to manage various groups of
organizational members, project teams, business start-up teams, customer service
response teams, and top management. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so
diversity must be defined for each organization and implemented accordingly.
References

Corporate finance institute. (n.d.). Diversity management. Retrieved 08 04, 2022,

from
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/diversity-
management/

Cox, T. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations : theory, research, and practice.

San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Rolla, A., & Kulandai, S. (2018). Diversity management at workplace: aspects,

challenges, and strategies. International Journal of Engineering Technology
Science and Research, 5(1), 306-316.