Managing Workforce Diversity: Wal-Mart

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Executive summary

A number of business enterprises have adopted diversity management in a bid to increase the productivity of the firm and, consequently, the market share. This report provides an analysis of managing workforce diversity by delving into a case study of Wal-Mart Company.

Through a review of literature, the report underscores the benefits of managing diverse workforce, the challenges faced by the company during the implementation process, and the management strategies put in place by the Walmart Company in managing workforce diversity.

The findings obtained show the even though the company has managed to implement a managerial diversity program known as leadership development program, the company needs to implement a training program that includes both the subordinates and the management staff.

More so, it is apparent that the training program cannot achieve substantial results if the company does not adopt diversity management skills rather than dwelling on awareness. This report brings to light the rationale behind effective strategies of managing workforce diversity, and then sheds light on how the process can be improved by offering recommendations.

Introduction

Managing workforce diversity encompasses recruiting, retaining, as well as promoting a peaceful coexistence of all workers by taking into account the need for equality despite the differences between them (Hankin 2004, p. 67). These differences may range from gender, age, race, religion, nationality, values, nationality, and sexual orientation, among other differences.

Diversity management can be articulated through a number of theories that mainly emphasize on employees’ motivation as well as human resources management. The purpose of this report is to give a critical analysis of diversity management at the Wal-Mart company in a bid to establish the authenticity of its effectiveness.

A review of current literature

Benefits of managing workforce diversity on employee

A company can achieve a competitive advantage when it takes the approach of managing diversity using a critical approach. If the workforce is managed effectively, the company gets into a position of creating competitive products/ services, and thus increasing its market share locally as well as globally (Mor 2011, p.3).

It is, however, important to note that diversity management results in competitive advantage only when it is characterized by innovation, which can only be achieved through motivation (Wrench 2007, p. 16).

Motivation in organization that embraces diversity can only be effected through identification of unique values of each member of the staff. As such, the organization gets into a position of increasing its market share and gaining international competitiveness (Griffin 2007, p. 209).

Workforce diversity can be managed by recruiting diverse employees, as this offers them with an opportunity of contributing better decisions to the company (Mor 2011, p. 9). This stems from the fact that the workforce is in a position of brainstorming a wide range of ideas that enhance employees’ motivation towards performance achievement.

More so, a company that has a good diversity management contributes positively towards helping the employees work with a common objective, and this, in turn, contributes positively to performance achievement (Bond 2007, p. 164). Diversity management has a positive contribution to an increased market share because the company creates a better image to the community.

For case in point, when a company recruits the disabled population with a view of promoting them even to higher positions, the approach facilitates a good relationship with the community because the community becomes aware that the company is interested in the welfare of the community.

And with the high increase in globalization, managing workforce diversity plays a critical role towards foreign market entry, as it creates an avenue for increased flexibility, making it possible for the company to adopt organizational changes effectively (Bond 2007, p. 165).

Problems faced by organizations when workforce diversity is not managed

However, a number of studies have indicated that even though diversity is regarded as a strategy of improving productivity, it has an adverse effect when the company is characterized with high levels of diversity (Deresky 2011, p. 82). These adverse effects stem from the fact that the management may be unable to make policies that suits each employee with regard to equal opportunities, human rights legislation, as well as employment equity within the organization (Kundu 2003).

For case in point, given that the Western management styles are different from Asian management style, a multinational company may face challenges when it comes to handling its entire managerial practices to the Asian countries simply because this may lead to a change of the company’s culture.

This may also result in low levels of motivation, given that the Asians may perceive centralization as being self-centered. It is, therefore, imperative to note that if a company fails to adopt an effective workforce diversity management, it is bound to experience a number of problems, especially in the human resource management.

Thus, workplace diversity management can be effectively achieved when the practice takes center stage in the human resource management practices. If not well managed, the organization can be faced with disunity among the workers stemming from fears that come with working with people who are bound to change the organizational culture (Kundu 2003).

As a result, the human resource is bound to experience an increase in overhead costs due to increased levels of seminars aimed at promoting diversity.To prevent this vice, the human resources should take the initiative of linking diversity management to recruitment, job placement, rewards management, as well as succession planning to the human resource management (Kundu 2003).

This kind of approach should address the needs of all employees in order to facilitate a peaceful coexistence. More so, the human resource should be in a position of coming up with a performance standard, which should be communicated and implemented without bias procedures.

Failure to this, the management will be unable to identify the undesirable behavior that emanate from diverse workforce, as well as to encourage on the positive behaviors emanating from the diverse workforce.

Thus, diversity management is based on the strength of the human resource as well as the organizational culture. As such, it is the responsibility of the human resource management to understand the organization’s culture that would facilitate implementation of policies that in line with the needs of every worker.

The human resource can improve diversity dilemmas though training and talent development programs (Deresky 2011, p. 83). This should involve providing the employees with the concepts involved in workforce diversity, as well as the rationale behind managing workforce diversity within an organization’s setting.

Failure to this, the management becomes unaware of the expectation of the employees on both individual and group level, as it cannot assess the work values and leadership assumption of the employees. Additionally, the levels of discrimination cannot be reduced if the human resource fails to adopt an approach that is geared towards creating formal as well as informal support systems of language development that would enhance standardizing organizational terms.

Ineffective training programs on diversity, which do not address skills for the social changes emanating from an increase in demographics, lead to unqualified goals and the objectives of the program (Kundu 2003). Thus, a high degree of cooperation between the senior managers, the line managers, and the employees should be called for to ascertain that the program achieves its goals.

This should include asking the employees to elaborate on the areas they have been sidelined, as this creates an opportunity for personalizing the program. Failure to adopt this approach, the company becomes unable to influence the required behavioral change that adds value to workforce management (Deresky 2011, p. 85).

An effective diversity management should compel the management to carry out a reconciling exercise aimed at reconciling competing goals, address the needs of the minority, act when there is a balance of resources amongst all cultural groups, as well as implement solutions when the workers have unanimously agreed or understood a particular issue (Rice 2010, p. 258).

Failure to do so often leads to conflict emanating ethnocentrism as well as stereotyping some employees. This negative trend is detrimental to a company’s productivity, as it results into a high rate of workers turnover (Kundu 2003). Thus, the human resource should find ways that involve all the employees in the decision making process in order to avoid conflicts , which make none of the employees exploit his/her full potential.

Types of workforce diversity that exist at wal-mart company

Critical analysis of the benefits diversity offers in the organisation

Wal-Mart Company is a big company that is ranked as one of the best performing companies globally. Its headquarters is in Arkansas, United States, and has many other branches across the globe. Thus, the company has expanded its market share to a number of countries that depict a completely different cultural background from its headquarters.

These countries include China, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and the U.K, among other counties. Moreover, the company has recruited over two million associates, all who come from diverse workforce (Wal-Mart Stores, 2011) According to Wal-Mart (2011), recruiting a workforce from different ethnic communities has resulted into a number of benefits for the company.

Thus, the company upholds the diversity management with regard to the notion that a company that recruits employees from diverse cultural backgrounds is bound to be innovative due to presence of diverse skills emanating from people with different talent (Deresky 2011, p. 86).

More so, the company has attained a competitive advantage through recruiting workforce from diverse ethnic groups, as this has created a positive self-image to the communities, who now perceive that the company does not only aim at making profits from the community, but it addresses the immediate needs of the community.

Additionally, by embracing diversity, the company portrays an organizational culture that is derived from full participation of diverse employees through the stakeholders from diverse ethnic groups, thus helping to create different values derived from people with diverse cultural backgrounds within the organization (Walmart 2011).

This approach is critical because considering values and ethics from people with different cultural backgrounds form the basis of excellent leadership (Rice 2010, p. 248). More so, the company understands that managing workforce through opinions from the diverse workforce benefits the company on both the short and long-term basis.

It is from this idea that the Wal-Mart Company has taken the approach of paying close attention to the organizational behavior that is likely to bear positive fruits with regard to vision building of the Company.

Thus, diversity management has provided the Wal-Mart company with an opportunity of viewing company’s policies in a broader manner, assess the level of support that should be provided to the diverse workforce, and evaluate whether the motivation program adopted by the company can accommodate workers from diverse cultural backgrounds (Rice 2010, p. 251).

Critical analysis of the problems diversity offers in the organisation

However, a number of problems also characterize diversity management within the Wal-Mart company when it comes to putting the theory into practice. This stems from the fact that different cultures depict different opinions with regard to theories employed in the organization structure.

For example, the Muslim community has raised concerns over acts of discrimination following a denial of a prayer break (Abernethy, 2010). In this regard, the management has been unable to make policies that suit each employee with regard to equal opportunities in terms of religious affiliation. This depicts that the Wal-Mart company engages in a number of diversity training programs that are only easy to practice in theory, thus posing a threat at the recruitment practice of the company (Bleijenbergh, Peters, & Poutsma 2010).

More so, diversity has contributed the problem of managing the organizational hierarchy of the company. This is evidenced by the fact that the Company has been unable to decentralize its management system in Asian countries, which depict different organizational behavior from the Western culture (DiTomaso & Post 2004, p. 269).

For case in point, while the Eastern culture depicts a management style that confines power within the managerial department, the Western culture depicts an organization that embraces delegation of power to the juniors.

This has created a challenge to the management of Wal-Mart Company in diverse branches across the globe, as the Western motivation strategies are thwarted by the Eastern managerial approach, making it hard to acquire explicit ideas from all workers of the company (Gardenswartz & Rowe 2010, p. 309).

Analysis of management strategies adopted by wal-mart company to manage diversity

The Wal-Mart Company has adopted a leadership development practice aimed at ensuring that the company manages the diverse workforce within the organization. This leadership program is conducted at Wal-Mart Leadership University (Walmart 2011). The program is conducted on the platform of corporate culture, and the managers are required to enter the training on a regular basis.

This program is termed as leadership development practice because its main aim is to develop the leaders towards embracing diversity within the organization. The leadership development of diversity management is facilitated by the presence of stakeholders, who are charged with the overall responsibility of ensuring that they provide adequate guidance regarding diversity issues, including the recruitment practices (Walmart 2011).

The success of the corporate leadership development and training at Wal-Mart Leadership University is attributed to an increase in diversity professionals, who demonstrate the priorities of the company towards diversity training for the managerial department.

More so, the manner in which the training sessions are offered is critical since it seeks to direct the training program by dispensing knowledge on diversity in a causal manner that narrates the presence of discrimination within the workforce, as well as providing the feedback to the posed questions through narration of the experiences within the company (Walmart 2011).

This move is consistent with the Rice (2010, p. 249) assertion: that the levels of discrimination cannot be reduced if the human resource fails to adopt an approach that is geared towards creating formal as well as informal support systems. Moreover, the executive committee takes the initiative of reviewing the proposed strategy before an issue concerning diversity management is tabled for debate amongst the leaders.

Thus, the management approach is consistent with the (Rice 2010, p. 252) assertion, which state that a company characterized by diverse workforce should not implement solutions to dilemmas before they are reviewed and before the workers unanimously agree or understand a particular issue to be put in place.

However, even though the Wal-Mart company has prioritized on the need of diversity training, its implementation falls short of expectation because it is not consistent with a good diversity program , since a good diversity management program is effected by not only involving the top leadership profession on the program but also the subordinate staff (Rice 2010, p. 254).

Thus, the program should be based on four main levels: individual, group, organization, and external environment. The individual level should be in a position of articulating the role of personal beliefs as well as other people’s beliefs, it should be in a position of addressing the bias emanating from conscious as well as the unconscious thoughts, and it should be in a position of examining diverse behavioral patterns within an organization(Deresky 2011, p. 88).

The group level of training should be in a position of identifying a number the behavioral patterns that are in line with group harmony, discussing issues relative to loyalty on the racial or religious sphere, and equipping all the workers on conflict resolution skills emanating from diversity (Rice 2010, p. 255).

The external level training, which seeks to provide a diversity-training program by finding a balance between affirmative action and workforce diversity, is of paramount importance because it explicitly addresses the correlation between diverse workforce and changes in demographics, and it also helps a company to benchmark its diversity management with other organizations within the community (Bond 2007, p. 64).

Thus, despite the presence of Corporate Leadership Development and Training within the Wal-Mart Company, the company has not fully adopted an effective strategy of managing workforce diversity. This assertion is based on grounds that the training program should encompass participation of all workers, including the subordinates.

In turn, this facilitates tying the employees’ organizational behaviors with the company’s values, as well as tracking the company’s values that are less understood by the employees from diverse backgrounds (Wrench 2007, p. 16). Nevertheless, the management strategy employed by the Wal-Mart depicts employee motivation; this is evidenced by the fact that the company has adopted proper use of reward and legitimate power in order to achieve the objectives aimed at management diversity (Wal-Mart Stores 2011).

Conclusion

From the argument presented in this paper, it is clear that managing workforce diversity presents benefits as well as challenges within an organizational setting, with an increase in market share being termed as one of the key benefits emanating from the practice. Thus, this paper has provided a report on Wal-Mart Company by analyzing the strategies adopted for managing workforce diversity within the company.

The paper tries to identify the effectiveness of the management approach adopted by demonstrating the complexity of diversity management program within the organization.

Recommendation

It is paramount for the Wal-Mart Company to adopt an organizational culture that fully upholds diversity concept, which reflects both direct and indirect organizational behavior (Deresky 2011, p. 95). This can be achieved through adopting a training program for all the staff, a program that does not only address diversity management awareness but also diversity management skills.

These include attaining effective tactics of confronting unwanted behaviors within the organization, effective management strategies of conflicts emanating from diversity, and effective communication strategies amongst the diverse workforce (Rice 2010, p.256).

Moreover, the company should enhance its diverse workforce management by introducing programs aimed at promoting self-awareness through experiential learning. In doing so, both the employee and the management will be in a position of evaluating the climate within the organization, and therefore reduce the level of stereotyping certain groups (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009).

List of References

Abernethy, S. 2010, ‘Former Avon Walt-Mart employees claim discrimination’, Vail Daily, February 12.

Bleijenbergh, I., Peters, P., & Poutsma, E. 2010, ‘Diversity management beyond the business case’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 29 no. 5, pp.413 – 421.

Bond, M. 2007, Workplace chemistry: Promoting diversity through organizational change. University Press of New England, Hanover.

Deresky, H. 2011, International management: Managing across borders and cultures: text and cases, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.

DiTomaso, N. & Post, C. 2004, Diversity in the workforce, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Gardenswartz, L. & Rowe, A 2010, Managing diversity: A complete desk reference & planning guide. Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Va.

Griffin, R. 2007, Principles of management. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Hankin, H. 2004, The new workforce: Five sweeping trends that will shape your company’s future, American Management Association, New York.

Kundu, S. 2003, ‘Workforce diversity status: a study of employees’ reactions’, Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol.103 no. 4, pp.215 – 226.

Mor, B. 2011, Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Ollapally, A. & Bhatnagar J 2009, ‘The Holistic Approach to Diversity Management: HR Implications, The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, January, vol 44, no. 3, pp 454-472.

Rice, M. 2010, Diversity and public administration: Theory, issues, and perspectives, M E Sharpe Inc, S.l.

Walmart, Inc. 2011, 2011 Global responsibility report. Web.

Wrench, J. 2007, Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU, Ashgate, Aldershot, England.

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