Developing a Diversity Training Program at Planetarium Software Company

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion/Recommendation
References

Abstract

The world of modern business is rich and unpredictable, and it is important that people are ready to react quickly to change, innovation, and progress. This recommendation report discusses the problem of cultural competence in the context of workplace relationships in order to prove the importance of a special training program. The company Planetarium Software has been chosen for analysis on the basis of its efforts to create a diverse working environment. Globalization and industrialization are advancing the possibility for companies to hire people from different parts of the world regardless of their cultural and ethical backgrounds and values.

As a result, any wrong handling of cultural diversity may hinder a company’s development; in addition, it is necessary to support people and demonstrate respect for their rights and freedoms. This project discusses the specific qualities of a training program that is based on concepts that include goal setting, open meetings, dynamic leadership, and cultural diversity. Although recognition of the problems of individuals belonging to racial minorities may be characterized by the arising of new concerns and discontent, it is critical to developing the offered diversity training program as such programs present a chance for companies to improve productivity, support staff, and succeed in interpersonal communication.

Introduction

Modern organizations are developing their activities and focusing on growth and improvement in order to stay competitive and deal with various economic and management challenges. The influence of globalization and industrialization means that people from different regions and parts of the world can work together, sharing their opinions, attitudes, and interests. Diversity is becoming a fundamental business tool, allowing people with varying backgrounds to introduce new perspectives and ideas at different levels (Sanyal et al., 2015). At the same time, problems and concerns may appear at different organizational levels, and companies should be prepared to take action and find solutions.

Problem Definition

When employees with different backgrounds, interests, and opinions have to begin their cooperation at the same place, unexpected demands and tasks can be developed. Workplace diversity and a lack of cultural competence may bring certain challenges, making it important to increase the representation of individuals and implement specific education programs (Bond & Haynes, 2014). The inability to develop stable workplace relationships because of racial or ethical inequalities, gaps in cultural knowledge, or the absence of one particular approach have the potential to provoke a serious management problem for any company.

Some employees are not able to make their professional voice being heard, and some people are still obsessed with the problem of gender inequality, dividing duties as those for women or men only. Finally, cultural diversity results in the development of various understandings of organizational etiquette when some members of a team prefer to discuss concerns in a group, and several individuals like to think about improvements alone.

Company’s Description

In this recommendation report, the topic of cultural competence within the context of workplace relationships will be developed for the Planetarium Software Company. Its leaders create a strong, diverse working environment regardless of the purposes established by the company. Planetarium Software is good at promoting and combining communication, innovation, and technological growth. The company’s main problem is a lack of cultural competence and diversity among managers and employees. Several Planetarium Software employees with Asian roots find it inappropriate to leave a working place before their leader or manager.

Therefore, compared to their American colleagues who do not want to stay at work when their tasks are done, they spend more time at work and promote new ideas and discussions without the whole team. Instead of creating one common schedule, the staff continues working with certain discontent. Punctuality and dealing with conflicts are also issues for concern. Several employees like to discuss all the problems with the whole team, and some people find it necessary to solve problems alone. As a result, much time is spent creating common schedules and methods of work.

Target Audience

Taking into consideration the fact that this recommendation report aims at helping the employees of the Planetarium Software Company, all representatives of this organization should find that this project offers a helpful approach. In particular, it is necessary to underline the role of the human resource manager of the company as a potential executor of recommendations and the CEO as the individual who will have the power of approval or disapproval for any chosen ideas affecting the staff.

In addition, this report can serve as a helpful source of information for future researchers and managers who want to improve their understanding of the topic along with the steps to deal with the problem of cultural competence in the workplace. Data collection from different sources can create a solid base for future projects and organizational activities that employees and their leaders can call on to develop the required skills and receive support individually and as part of a large team.

Discussion

Change management, an essential process in any organization, should occur under the control of an expert and in accordance with a properly developed plan. Although employees tend to view most changes with suspicion, it is difficult for companies aiming at high results, competition, and certain profits to avoid making changes. Planetarium Software includes employees from different cultures, and this diversity potentially presents a challenge to perform. Therefore, implementing a special training program is highly recommended on the basis of four main concepts: goal setting, communication at open meetings, effective leadership, and knowledge regarding cultural diversity.

Goal Setting

The qualities of an organizational setting depend greatly on people’s recognition of their personal and professional goals. Integrating diverse employees results in the necessity to introduce inclusion criteria to ensure that all considered individuals will satisfactorily fit a particular organization. Bond and Haynes (2014) emphasize that all workers remain dependent on each other in their intentions to achieve organizational goals. Therefore, the first aim of any training program is to set goals and explain the worth of these goals to all participants.

This step is among the cognitive pre-conditions requiring recognition in the process of strategic management (Fujimoto & Härtel, 2017). Participants must learn how to define clear organizational goals and evaluate business opportunities, including resources, ideas, and services, in order to make relevant suggestions.

The next step is to analyze all options and ensure that no discrimination or work-life imbalance prevents the completion of the chosen goals. It is possible to develop and employ specific surveys or questionnaires and offer employees the opportunity to share their opinions about different statements. As part of this process, leaders should provide assurances that no personal information will be disclosed, nor will subsequent judgments be developed. This approach results in diversity learning being clearer and more self-directed for all workers (Fujimoto & Härtel, 2017).

People can be encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences and solve current organizational problems, promoting quality improvement, increased service delivery, and new business strategies. A diverse working environment can undergo certain transformations with respect to the needs and abilities of employees. A mix of ideas united by common goals contributes to the creation of a homogeneous group of people who understand their roles and responsibilities and organize their work according to the plans set in place (Steele & Derven, 2015). For that reason, goal setting is an important part of a diversity training program that must not be ignored by leaders, managers, and the other employees who become direct stakeholders in organizational success.

Open Meetings

Another important recommendation for Planetarium Software in the interest of reducing the effects of cultural diversity and creating an effective working environment includes regular meetings. It is not enough to organize one or two discussions over a year’s time and expect that all problems will be solved and all ideas will have been discussed. Fujimoto and Härtel (2017) suggest using a specially equipped conference room as a place for senior managers and employees to gather and discuss a series of ideas, suggestions, and improvements. The role of the human resource department is integral to this task.

Its representatives can investigate available resources, invite influential people, and discuss strategies within the department itself and with employees of the company in general. Furthermore, meetings must be scheduled at times that accommodate all of a company’s geographies (Mazur, 2014). Managers can use various social media tools and programs to organize face-to-face meetings via Skype or other appropriate software. Regardless of the approaches chosen to arrange open meetings, it is necessary to ensure that a final decision is communicated to all the staff members in the company (Fujimoto & Härtel, 2017). It is imperative that people are aware of all changes and are given a chance to share their opinions.

Open meetings require strong organizational skills and the participation of each member of a team. In their investigation, O’Brien, Scheffer, van Nes, and van der Lee (2015) show that diversity can be achieved by following simple rules where cohesion, trust, and communication are supported. Decreased bias and conflict would be another potential positive outcome of open meetings for employees of the company under analysis. During regular meetings, managers can discuss various topics while recognizing employees’ education, values, and important personal characteristics (O’Brien et al., 2015).

A properly chosen diversity strategy usually promotes value creation, respect, and integrity (Sanyal et al., 2015). All these concepts are necessary for business success and development. Developers of open meetings who pay sufficient attention to human qualities and working standards are more likely to easily find a solution to the problem of cultural bias and remove negative attitudes among employees.

Dynamic Leadership

Any educational program should have a leader who is able to gather required material, organize people, and define the purposes of any activity. Leaders are responsible for the appropriate execution of new solutions and ideas (Steele & Derven, 2015). In addition to possessing a number of organizational skills and an ability for critical thinking, leaders must demonstrate high-level decision-making and engage in workplace diversity discussions (Bond & Haynes, 2014).

In this recommendation report, the role of the leader defines the tone and organization of the entire training program. In this case, a particular type of leadership must be introduced to meet the goals of the program as well as to define the purposes for each member of the team. Dynamic leadership is a solution that can well suit the needs of Planetarium Software. Within the frame of this type of work, leaders should develop proactive qualities, preemptively address change, and prepare other people for new decisions and approaches.

Effective leadership should not be characterized merely by properly made decisions and control of employees’ activities. This function also includes daily actions, direct and indirect communication with the staff, and motivation (O’Brien et al., 2015).

The development of a diversity training program cannot be defined as successful without the participation of a good leader in the plan. This individual will serve as an example for the rest of the company in terms of how to communicate, how to offer ideas, and how to pose questions that may promote new discussions and exchange of experience. At the same time, a leader must support and help subordinates to avoid conflict and reduce the level of uncertainty and doubts. Sometimes, an ordinary talk or a letter can provide encouragement and reveal new power and potential to deal with another task and accept required change, a new duty, or an additional requirement.

Cultural Diversity

A final aspect in the development of an effective training program to help employees deal with cultural diversity involves understanding all necessary terms and recognizing challenges. In this situation, the employees of Planetarium Software face the serious problem of an increased number of racial and ethical biases as they respond to each other’s actions and decisions. On the one hand, the ability to communicate about this problem promises a significant advantage for the staff. On the other hand, identifying the presence of concerns about cultural competence can be a dangerous step because of associated expectations, responsibilities, and evaluations.

Officially implementing a cultural diversity training program within a company gives employees and leaders implicit permission to demonstrate their concerns, remember situations involving unfair or biased treatment, and establish new demands and goals. Organizational learning requires establishing a new framework that promotes change along with spending additional resources over a certain period (Fujimoto & Härtel, 2017). Leaders must make the necessary preparations to control possible conflicts, manage discontent, and deal with other unpredictable situations within the company.

An alternative approach involves defining a list of reasons not to support a training program but instead make people solve their problems using their own methods. For example, the absence of this program can leave space to identify and discuss other ideas and problems. In the case of racially or ethically biased people, it is unlikely that a training program will strengthen their personal qualities and increase self-motivation. Finally, this approach would suggest that no clear standards and obligations should be developed for hiring new people. Leaders would be free to use diversity as a chance to motivate and control people.

However, taking into consideration the main thrust of the diversity training program, it would be wrong to believe that discussing cultural diversity and promoting additional knowledge on this topic can be safely neglected. Leaders and managers should help their people solve cultural problems, and this training program presents an opportunity for Planetarium Software to become stronger and more successful.

Conclusion/Recommendation

In general, the content of the offered recommendation report proves that numerous ways are available to improve organizational management and encourage employees. Cultural diversity is a problem facing a number of modern companies. Planetarium Software is one among many organizations where people with diverse cultural backgrounds are meeting specific goals and following clear rules and standards as they work.

The benefits of accepting these recommendations for the staff of such a multicultural company include the possibility of increasing productivity by removing external barriers, supporting the staff in promoting new ideas and services, and investigating the conditions under which professional and personal growth can be achieved. Solving a particular problem (in this case, cultural disagreement) may encourage the staff to focus on the next apparent challenge, continuing the company’s progress.

In this formal learning program, the roles have to be distributed between all the employees of the company. For example, the CEO should be the first person who has to take some steps and help the team to be reunited. Dynamic leadership is the quality and the goal to be achieved. It is expected to observe how the CEO as a leader of Planetarium Software gathers people and communicates to them, discussing their future goals and change.

As soon as the first meeting is organized, an HR manager has to talk to each team member and explain their roles and duties. The task of this person is not only to guide the company’s employees but to support them in accepting change. Finally, a change manager (in this case, a learning program developer) has to gather feedback and communicate with the team to make sure they understand the goals and strive to achieve the necessary results. Online surveys and brief questionnaires can be effective in establishing communication with Planetarium Software.

However, applying a single training program to a company is not enough to uphold life-long success and recognition in the global or regional market. Therefore, some space and desire to continue improvements and focus on innovation should always be present. The distinctive feature of this report is that its recommendations can be addressed either from one organization to another or from an individual to an organization because a training program can be offered to one person individually as well as to a group of people. The Planetarium Software team, like other companies with culturally diverse employees, is the target audience of this report.

They should use the ideas for a training program as a good start for new discoveries and be ready to investigate their opportunities with the knowledge they have acquired and the understanding of solutions to problems they have already addressed. The next steps for modern companies may include exchanging gained experience online, discussing achieved benefits and discovered shortages, and evaluating the fields where organizational change may occur.

References

Bond, M. A., & Haynes, M. C. (2014). Workplace diversity: A social-ecological framework and policy implications. Social Issues & Policy Review, 8(1), 167–201.

Fujimoto, Y., & Härtel, C. E. J. (2017). Organizational diversity learning framework: Going beyond diversity training programs. Personnel Review, 46(6), 1120–1141.

Mazur, B. (2014). Building diverse and inclusive organizational culture-best practices: A case study of Cisco Co. Journal of Intercultural Management, 6(4–1), 169–179.

O’Brien, K., Scheffer, M., van Nes, E., & van der Lee, R. (2015). How to break the cycle of low workforce diversity: A model for change. PloS One, 10(7), 0133208.

Sanyal, C., Wilson, D., Sweeney, C., Jude, S. R., Kaur, S., & Yates, C. (2015). Diversity and inclusion depend on effective engagement. Human Resource Management International Digest, 23(5), 21–24.

Steele, R., & Derven, M. (2015). Diversity & inclusion and innovation: A virtuous cycle. Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(1), 1–7.

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