Induction Assignment; Workplace Diversity

QUESTION

Guidelines

The aim of this assignment is to prepare students for engagement with their program of studies. In doing so, feedback will be provided to give them an indication of how they are progressing. Choose and answer one of the following questions:

According to Europa (2022), a significant increase in the number and variety of online courses has been observed in recent years. Although online courses have been welcomed as a great opportunity by a number of students, others still see them as less useful than traditional face to face courses. Evaluate the effectiveness of online education, and discuss to what extent online courses can replace traditional classroom teaching.
The CEO and Managing Director of Qantas Airways Ltd Alan Joyce states: “We have a very diverse environment and a very inclusive culture and those characteristics got us through the tough times. Diversity generated better strategy, better risk management, better debates, and better outcomes” (Deloitte Review, 2018, p.3). To what extend do you (dis)agree with this statement? Discuss the significance of diversity in multinational companies, evaluating the challenges their leaders face.
“Tourism should be banned in order to protect local environments, cultures and economies.” To what extent do you (dis)agree with this statement? Evaluate the impact of tourism in these three areas.

Minimum Requirements

A qualifying assignment must demonstrate that a student has made a reasonable attempt at answering one of the questions in line with the marking criteria. They must also meet the following standards:

Word limit: 1500 words (+/- 10%). This excludes the cover page and reference list.
Minimum number of credible sources: 5
Cover page
Page numbers
Font size: 12, Font type: Times New Roman, Line spacing: 1.5

Time constraints: Students are reminded that they cannot attempt the written assignment until they successfully pass the three quizzes. The assignments must be submitted before the end of the four (4)- week module. Students will receive informal feedback on their qualifying submission from their module tutor. There are no extensions granted for the Induction module final assignment.

Important notes:

All qualifying submissions will be graded with the number ‘100’ to indicate that a student has successfully completed the module and can progress to his/her first core module. The informal grade is recorded in the feedback box to give students an indication of the standard of their work.
All non-qualifying submissions as well as non-submissions for students who have completed at least one of the three quizzes are recorded with the number ‘30’
Students lack of engagement with any of the assessment points is recorded with the number ‘0’.
Both ‘30’ and ‘0’ indicate that the module was not successfully completed and, in this case, students need to enroll on a new offer of the induction to repeat the module.

ANSWER

Workplace Diversity

The CEO of Qantas airways accords their success to the diversity in the organization. Besides gender and race, workplace diversity entails hiring people with unique traits and capabilities to enhance business performance. Therefore, when there is diversity in the workplace, businesses tend to get more benefits and improve their profitability (Scarborough et al., 2019). The CEO further acknowledges that their diverse and inclusive culture made them achieve success during hard times. Hence, people from diverse origins can create a productive and innovative organization.

Further, business leaders in many organizations have seen the importance of workplace diversity and inclusivity and implemented such a strategy for the good of their company. Moreover, organizations that implement diversity have few cases of discrimination; hence the employees derive job satisfaction in such companies (Ng & Sears, 2020). The presence of inclusivity will help all the employees feel a sense of belonging and even choose to stay with the company. Besides, an inclusive culture exhibited in the company helps retain employees and make them productive at work. The CEO also denotes the essence of diversity in the organization, as discussed below.

Better Strategy

Organizations with diverse cultures and employees help them to have varied perspectives; hence they will have sophisticated approaches to problems or workplace issues. The management will have more innovation, creativity, and flexibility and can make better plans, decisions, and initiatives for the organization. Such plans will enable the company to grow and acquire a huge market size while having a competitive edge (Roberson, 2019). When the management is diverse, they can brainstorm, share ideas and become innovative in every approach they take or implement. Other organizations believe that due to their workplace diversity, they were able to attract more diverse customers. Hence the inclusion of diverse employees as a strategic goal helps to market products n services to diverse market segments. Therefore, organizations that want to eliminate discrimination might start investigating and understanding employee differences.

Better Risk Management

The managing director of Qantas airways further examines how diversity helps them to manage risks in the organization. Hence diverse teams in organizations can help manage issues and challenges that can give rise to risks. Organizations that implement a diverse task force have a powerful source of expertise and skills; hence they will be able to mitigate problems, especially risks in the organization. There are various specializations under risk management involving operational, strategic, compliance, quantitative, IT, and cyber security (Roberson, 2019). The diverse needs of an organization require the input of individuals. The organization might lack such unique and sophisticated skills if it is not ready to embrace diversity. Companies that allow diversity benefit from innovation, creativity, and competence (Ng & Sears, 2020). Therefore, companies rely on individuals to improve risk visibility. Besides, during the risk mitigation, diverse teams collaborate to implement diverse thinking essential for brainstorming.

Improving the Overall Performance of the Organization

Firms tend to perform better through diversity, especially if the organization’s management has a diverse team. According to research, a more diverse company experiences more profitability than its competitors. The financial performance of firms increases since diversity in the company boosts productivity. The impact of a productive workforce is high-performance levels reflected in the firm’s profitability (Roberson, 2019). Further, diverse teams are innovative and creative; therefore, the company will be able to solve problems compared to other firms. Firms in the private sector can be more competitive when they implement diversity and generate more revenues.

Moreover, an organization’s performance will improve with a positive organizational culture. A diverse culture is based on inclusivity, and the company will not discriminate. Such a culture fosters teamwork, innovation, and collaboration, enhancing the company’s culture. Thus, a positive culture ensures that employees complete their assigned tasks, comply with organizational policies, have ethical standards, and respect each other and their superiors (Roberson, 2019). The positivity of culture improves organizational productivity. Also, organizations address unconscious bias to mitigate unfairness and discrimination. Equality is also essential for employees to feel appreciated and not discriminated against. Hence they will be motivated to perform better and boost the outcome of their tasks and responsibilities.

Better performance can be seen when the company can retain its skilled talent or workforce. Productive companies like Qantas airways ltd use several techniques to retain their employees. They ensure an inclusive organizational culture; hence the employees will feel accepted and will not wish to quit the company. The staff has a sense of belonging and wishes to work with airways due to its inclusive culture (Roberson, 2019). The management also knows to hire and to train new employees is costly and uses motivational tactics to retain their staff. Besides, diverse organizations are innovative since there is a variety of different dimensions and unique traits of employees (Ng & Sears, 2020). They are also skilled differently, and this helps the organization to be more creative. The diverse workforce entails experts specializing in different areas, helping the company be productive. Moreover, the employees brainstorm and share ideas, and the talented individuals help others understand industry trends and new information.

Better Negotiations

Inclusive listening is an attribute associated with a diverse culture in organizations. When a party to a negotiation feels accepted and heard, one can likely win or reach a positive agreement in negotiation. The choice of words, body language, and non-verbal cues help parties to a negotiation to decide if they are treated well or inappropriately. It is important to note that men and women have different negotiation skills. Thus it is prudent to have a diverse workforce, as it will help eliminate unconscious bias during negotiations (Ng & Sears, 2020). For instance, a male-dominated workforce will make the females feel patronized during negotiations. Hence it is important to have employees of both genders to ensure that there are diverse people in the organization. In negotiations, women are believed to be firm while men are collaborative; hence depending on the nature of the negotiations, an organization can choose to have either men or women as negotiators to help reach an agreement.

Significance of Diversity in Multinational Companies

Inclusivity

Multinational companies have increased the implementation of a diverse workforce; hence people of diverse cultures and backgrounds work in similar organizations or offices. The implementation of diversity in these corporations is based on the corporate culture, which helps the teams to be cohesive. Further, when there is a diverse workforce in such companies, the employees will experience the feeling of inclusivity (Kharroubi, 2021). Thus they will be able to perform better and increase productivity in the organization. The employees will also be able to use their talent and skills to help the organization achieve better as they feel part of the larger organization. Moreover, an inclusive environment will help the firm have a cohesive workforce in which the teams collaborate, share ideas, brainstorm, and empower each other. Thus, employees in diverse environments tend to learn more from their colleagues and enhance their skills.

Cultural Synergy

Different factors help the introduction of diversity in multinational companies. The management needs to implement cultural synergy. Such a strategy will help to unite other cultures; thus, everyone will be accorded the same respect and treatment. Such will therefore mitigate discrimination and allow diverse cultures to permeate the organization (Kharroubi, 2021). This approach will boost innovation and creativity but must not go against the corporate culture. The corporate culture entails the vision and mission of the organization; thus, going against the corporate culture will not help but compromise the organization’s purpose.

Innovation

Multinational companies benefit from creativity and innovation from their diverse employees and management. The company’s leadership will have better ideas and solutions and be able to handle tasks effectively. Besides, contemporary organizations are prone to risks; thus, diverse teams help to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities. Hence diversity in this context might entail the expertise present in the organization. The IT experts are better positioned to manage organizational risk due to their knowledge and experience. With a diverse workforce, it is apparent that such an organization will create more innovative products and services than other companies (Kharroubi, 2021). The employees in such an organization will have several ideas, thus helping the management choose better options. They increase their competitive advantage due to their innovation.

Challenges Leaders Face In Multinational Companies and their solutions

Translation of organizational culture can take a different meaning; hence it is prudent for the multinationals to find an effective interpreter who will not distort the meaning of the organizational values. Further, another challenge is maintaining distributed teams in the organization. Therefore MNCs can create an online profile that can help the employees know each other and interact (Inegbedion et al., 2020). According to research, it is evident that most multinationals face the problem of misalignment. When the company’s leaders do not understand the objectives and goals in the vision and mission statement, the corporation will not be productive. Besides, it is prudent to localize company culture to fit the market needs of the host nation. Such a strategy is effective, and it eradicates resistance from the employees.

References

Inegbedion, H., Sunday, E., Asaleye, A., Lawal, A., & Adebanji, A. (2020). Managing diversity for organizational efficiency. Sage Open, 10(1), 2158244019900173. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244019900173

Kharroubi, D. (2021). Global workforce diversity management: Challenges across the world. Ekonomicko-manazerske spektrum, 15(1), 28-37. dx.doi.org/10.26552/ems.2021.1.28–37

Ng, E. S., & Sears, G. J. (2020). Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 164, 437-450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4051-7

Roberson, Q. M. (2019). Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 69-88. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015243

Scarborough, W. J., Lambouths III, D. L., & Holbrook, A. L. (2019). Support of workplace diversity policies: The role of race, gender, and beliefs about inequality. Social Science Research, 79, 194-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.01.002