The corporate justification for inclusion and diversity is becoming more widely accepted. While equality is frequently the driving force behind these initiatives, businesses have started to see inclusiveness and diversity as a tool of competitive edge and, more particularly, as a critical growth driver. There are many reasons why companies now prefer to incorporate workplace diversity into their corporate culture. However, while the benefits might involve the company growth and rapid increase in revenue, there are shortcomings, such as a lack of efficient communication, which is being eliminated in Bahamian companies, such as KPMG and Cable Bahamas Ltd.
Meaning of Diversity in a Workplace
First, it is necessary to define diversity in the context of the workplace in companies. Workplace diversity is described in a Forbes article as a business that hires employees with a variety of traits, including gender, age, religion, race, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, religion, language, education, skills, and others (Westover, 2020). The article emphasizes that companies should take active measures to attract and retain a diverse workforce that encompasses a range of ages, races, faiths, and belief systems (Westover, 2020). Therefore, diversity in a corporate context is a framework that promotes inclusivity.
Benefits and Shortcomings of Diversity
The first reason why companies promote diversity is that its benefits dynamic business growth. McKinsey & Company’s most recent research confirms the compelling financial rationale for gender diversity in company management as well as cultural and ethnic diversity and demonstrates that this business argument is only becoming more robust (McKinsey & Company, 2020). More than ever, diversified businesses are now more likely to beat less diverse competitors in terms of growth. According to McKinsey & Company’s 2019 research, businesses with greater gender diversity were 25% more likely to outperform other businesses (McKinsey & Company, 2020). Therefore, each company will be eager to expand and grow with the help of diversity and inclusivity.
Additionally, the benefit of diversity is that it increases an organization’s income. McKinsey & Company discovered that these cohorts’ average chance of financial gains is in line with the findings of the aforementioned quartile study (McKinsey & Company, 2020). Businesses in the Resting on Laurels group, for instance, had the highest average chance of outperforming their competitors in terms of revenue in 2019, at roughly 62 percent, which is likely due to their historically high degrees of diversity on management teams (McKinsey & Company, 2020). In this case, increasing income rates positively influences applicants, companies, and current employees.
However, it is essential to mention that diversity might often involve shortcomings. For instance, diverse teams are sometimes plagued by communication problems. Efficient communication and promotion are always possible with high-quality adaptations (Stone et al., 2020). When functioning in a diverse group, it is additionally a method to let data be lost during the process (Stone et al., 2020). Still, sometimes it might transcend the trivial issues of the language barrier and involve cultural beliefs (Stone et al., 2020). Here, different cultures have various approaches to communication and gestures and might even involve certain stereotypes, which might lead to conflict situations in teams. Thus, increased diversity can bring challenges when not managed properly.
Examples of Diversity Roles in Bahamian Companies
Finally, it is notable that many subsidiaries and companies working in the Bahamas are open to diversity and promote it immensely. The examples when diversity comes into play involve better communication with clients and motivation for employees. For instance, diversity benefits businesses, according to KPMG in the Bahamas (KPMG, n.d.). Diverse teams more accurately represent the varied business practices of the company’s clients. KPMG may communicate many points of view and develop rounded perspectives as a result, which encourages creative thinking. Moreover, the Bahamian subsidiary points out that it aims to establish a diverse workplace where talent is acknowledged, regarded with respect, and given options regarding their work schedules and professional growth (KPMG, n.d.). Diversity, in KPMG’s opinion, helps it to hire and retain the finest employees, offer clients the greatest services, engage with communities more effectively, and create a good impact on the company (KPMG, n.d.). Therefore, the company not only supports diversity approaches but encourages other companies to follow the same path.
Additionally, the group of firms, which includes Cable Bahamas Ltd., is proud to highlight the women in leadership who make up more than half of senior managers within the organization. Here, diversity comes into play by motivating women through executive positions. Cable Bahamas Ltd. retains its position as a pioneer in diversity, tolerance, and inclusivity (The Nassau Guardian, n.d.). Senior executive positions, notably vice presidents of the central business divisions, are held by these women (The Nassau Guardian, n.d.). According to Beverly Saunders, vice president of human resources, the business intentionally fosters a forward-thinking workplace where capable women may take senior positions (The Nassau Guardian, n.d.). As a result, in such a company, diversity is incorporated through bigger opportunities for women in terms of leading positions, which encourages other employees as well.
Conclusion
Hence, while the advantages could include the expansion of the business and a quick rise in income, there are drawbacks as well, such as a lack of effective communication, which is being fixed in Bahamian firms like KPMG and Cable Bahamas Ltd. A company that values workplace diversity is one that employs workers that have a range of characteristics. Companies support diversity first and foremost because it fosters dynamic corporate growth. Diversity also has the advantage of raising an organization’s revenue. However, it is important to note that variety may frequently come with drawbacks. For instance, communication issues might occasionally hamper heterogeneous teams.
Workforce diversity should be treated as a business initiative and not a human resource or personnel department function. There is a strong business case for diversity in the workplace. The 21st century enterprises have a felt need to value, and leverage diversity. It is top agenda item for successful CEOs. It is commonly accepted business reality that heterogeneous groups outperform homogenous groups.
Heterogeneous groups are better at problem solving, effective at decision making, and they are particularly well equipped in generating creative ideas. The advantage comes from the fact that the diversity of the workforce background itself imparts a fertile launch pad for creativity to work at its best. Two brains are better than one is a truism aptly applicable to business situations.
The power of brainstorming to create a dramatic impact in finding creative solutions to business problems is enormous. Modern work teams can do wonders in workplace. Productivity, and work quality significantly go up when employees have, or perceive they have, a full opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way.
3M typifies such philosophy abundantly. There is a sense of job ownership, project ownership, ownership of the outcome. Even the most die-hard critic of workforce diversity will be unable to refute the obvious benefits of diversity.
Introduction
We live in a society that is known for its differences. Diversity in terms of multiculturalism, gender politics, affirmative action, preferences, and mandates have become part of our existence. We are today more actively dividing ourselves by race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, cultural norms, physical ability, and socioeconomic status, than in the past (George, 1961).
Though diversity is in existence since long, it is only recently that it has attracted greater attention from the corporate mandarins. Managing diversity is nothing but changing the organisational culture or its standard operating procedures. The fostered culture should enable employees to closely examine their values and beliefs and question themselves as to why others look different for them.
Diversity management must essentially create an environment that works naturally for the total diversity mixture. Keeping this in view the present paper attempts to clarify some of the real life business challenges in an environment characterised by diversity in workforce.
Why Diversity Management?
Human beings tend to see through their own views and interpret the views by what is accustomed to them. There is an addiction to seek the aggregation of those makes a lot of agnate to them for the acquisition and assurance in similarities. It is difficult for humans to conceive power, and history shows that it is rarely done voluntarily. They abide by the external changes and always strive for an accompaniment of homeostasis.
This amusing absoluteness makes an atmosphere appropriate for diversity, which includes anybody; adolescent, old, abandoned and affluent, Hindu or Muslim or Christian. Assortment calls for anniversary being advancing to agreement with his or her attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about others and accepting abundance with the differences.
To achieve from the affluence of talents and perspectives that can alone appear from accepting an advanced array of humans in adjustment of authoritative roles, managements accept to alternation advisers to accept the differences that abide aural cultures and as well amount the similarities that abide amid capricious cultures.
Even to absorb humans with altered backgrounds and characteristics who are able with appropriate skills, organisations accept to ensure that such advisers are not appropriate for their different claimed and cultural ancestry as the amount of inclined behaviour in the organisation; they may acquire their own way to other firms who wish them on their own terms.
Different organisations are viewing diversity’ in different ways. By diversity, we commonly mean differences based on ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, national origin and sexual orientation.
But technically speaking, “diversity goes beyond these visibilities and encompasses an infinite range of individuals’ unique characteristics and experiences including communication styles, physical characteristics such as height and weight, speed of learning and comprehension, socioeconomics, and education” (Anthony, 2005, p. 1).
The diversities associated with education, socioeconomic and work experience are, of course, considered more critical for organisational success today. In this context, diversity has become a resource for organisations.
In the workplace, diversity, if properly managed, optimises the willingness and ability of all employees to contribute to the organisational success by encouraging each employee to draw fully on the talents, different points of view, skills, and practices that have been brought into the system for the benefit of both the individual and the organisation.
Today, flourishing companies are taking action to appeal people who are blessed with talents, adventures and perspectives, socioeconomic accomplishments and again to alone and aggregately empower them to accord aggregate they accept in adjustment to attain business objectives.
The ambition of assortment is not to calculate humans by category, but to account from the best mix of humans of such a category. It is the organisations that could instil variety into the organisation in tune with their eyes and cardinal objectives accept reaped added benefits.
Different Dimensions
People exhibit abundant differences in how they recognize changes in the organisation based on claimed characteristics. Of course, there is a hypothesis in psychology, which says that behaviour of an individual is an action of the being interacting with his or her environment. For example, an annoyed worker gets balked while alive for a close that requires approval of place from abounding levels.
That is how assortment in the workforce fosters mixed responses, ideas, and outputs in the organisation. Researchers observe particularly seven major differences: Humans alter in productivity; humans alter in adeptness and talent; humans differ in their ability for accomplishing top superior results; humans alter in how abundant they wish to be empowered and involved; humans alter in the appearance of administration they adopt and need; humans alter in their charge for acquaintance with added people; and humans alter in their bulk of charge and adherence to the firm.
Personality differences are another source of diversity. The personality factors such as sociability, affecting stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, artlessness to experience, self-monitoring of behaviour and affecting intelligence make an impact on employee’s achievement at work places. It determines how an employee gathers and evaluates information.
Sensation displays individuals’ ability to accept and orderliness in their job action area as employees’ admiration to accept an all-embracing viewpoint and as well adore analytic new problems. Feeling blazon humans are about conformists and by all agency try to abstain disagreement. Contrarily, cerebration blazon individuals await added on their ability rather than affect to break problems.
It is believed that a diverse work force is always superior to a homogenous group. A heterogeneous group is proved to be capable of producing higher-quality ideas and is likely to take quality decisions for greater the diversity, greater will be the innovation in the organisation.
A company’s mere willingness to employ diverse workforce such as people from different races, genders, cultural backgrounds, the disabled, etc., may make it a darling of the market and thus give a boost to its market cap and sales volumes (Gregory, 1980).
Organisation image: The image of an organisation follows same connotations and meanings as that carried by an individual in real life. The organisations also exhibit same traits and behaviour as exhibited by individuals.
So organisations must create a culture that values diversity; practices policies that foster mutual respect, a sense of belonging for all, and the acceptance of differences, promote a culture where diversity is valued; and corporate wide diversity training serves to promote this image.
Concern for equality: In their practices, organisations must demonstrate equal respect for minority and majority group members. To achieve this, companies must develop performance expectations and reward systems that are unbiased. Often, minority-group members feel that they work harder than majority group members, but still are not compensated equally (Orlando, 2000).
Career development: Companies that want to create a climate where diversity is valued must promote minority group members with the opportunity for development and promotion. Most important, they must provide minorities an access to top-level management positions. Minorities who hold high-level positions can send a message to those in the lower ranks that this is a company that values diversity.
Hiring practices: Organisations must work hard to recruit and hire multicultural employees. At the same time companies must provide those prospective workers with an opportunity to be hired into well-paying positions, equal to the opportunities extended to majority groups. Companies can benefit from setting goals and guidelines for minority hiring.
Unfortunately, some organisations seek to build a diverse work group by hiring many minority group workers into low-paying, unskilled positions. Rather than creating an image of a positive multicultural environment, however, this crowding of minorities at lower positions fosters negative feelings. Minority members sense that they must do the “dirty work” and feel they are being used by the organisation (John, 1982).
Benefits of Workplace Diversity
In the global economy, lack of cross-cultural understanding among the business people may lead to delays in getting the job done right, poor performance, decreased revenues and lost opportunities. Similarly, the need for adaptability is found to be quite essential for success in the globalised economy and diversity enhances adaptability.
It is only by employing a wide assortment of people; richness of talents and perspectives can be brought into organisations. There are thus more than one reason why companies deliberately take initiatives to build diversity among its employees, of course, in tune with its stated vision and mission statements.
Organisations that manage their diverse workers can increase their productivity substantially through many ways, one of which is increased problem-solving ability. Such productivity may result from increase in creativity that has been hypothesised to be related to heterogeneity. For example, bilingualism and biculturalism have been found to be related to divergent thinking, which in turn has been hypothesised to be associated with creativity (John, 1995).
Recently, it has been demonstrated that ethnic heterogeneity in small groups is associated with increased quality of ideas generated for solving problems. Increased heterogeneity also brings in another benefit the prevention of group think phenomenon that occurs only in cohesive groups.
Such factors however depend on how factors such as amount of diversity, ease of discussing differences, cultural awareness training, and background information on group members affect the quality of idea generation.
With the advent of digital economy one of the greatest challenges facing the organisations is the increasing diversity of workforce. It has become an essential business concern. There is a talent war raging among companies to retain their best talent in a bid to retain their competitive advantage. Diversity management and change management go hand in hand.
They mutually support each other (Anton, 1970). Organisations that adapt themselves to change are more likely to be comfortable with managing diversity better. Likewise, organisations are comfortable with diversity and are more likely to be able to anticipate and adapt to changes in the globalised business environment.
They will be nimble footed to react instantaneously to the situational demands. It is known that organisations that are ready to accept changes can be stronger inherently as it would benefit them in terms of achieving adaptability to manage complexity, contradictions, and paradoxes.
Office technology has felt the revolutionary nature of change the most. The technological sophistication is a natural enabler to the manage diversity in a planned and systematic manner. Technology offers a level playing field to each individual regardless of gender, race, age, and so on. It is a great equaliser (Bertallanfy, 1968).
It eliminates the human bias. Electronic meeting is case to point as an example. It is a way of exchange ideas for free. Everyone has an active participative role shot. An electronic meeting paves the way for a secured atmosphere in which ideas and suggestions can be shared and proposed easily.
As a marketing strategy in today’s global economy it makes eminent sense to make the workforce represented by people from all walks of life covering a broad spectrum like different ethnicities, races, ages, abilities, genders.
To ensure that their articles and casework are advised to address to this assorted chump base, advancing companies are hiring people, from those walks of activity for their specialised insights and knowledge.
Similarly, companies having direct interface with the clientele are finding increasingly important to match the profile of the workforce with the profile of their customer base. Homogeneous workforce always result in less external interaction and communication and companies that retain such a workforce would not be effective in framing policies and programmes in consultation with people of different tastes and preferences.
To stay competitive the workforce diversity helps the companies as a capacity-building strategy. They need to sprint in order to stay where they are. The dynamics of change is no more evolutionary in nature rather it is revolutionary.
Companies that advance accept the accommodation to actually break problems, bound acclimate to new situations, readily analyse new opportunities and capitalise on them instantaneously. The scope of talent, experience, knowledge, insight, and acuteness accessible in their workforces can go a continued way in architecture the accommodation for the enterprise.
Whatever may be reasons that prompt companies, it is an obvious fact that companies that diversify their workforces will have a distinct advantage over those that don’t. The huge allowances of workforce diversity will be experienced, not by the companies that accept abstruse to apply humans in animosity of their differences, but by the companies that accept abstruse to apply humans because of them.
Diversity Management and implementation of diversity policy
The acceptation of workforce diversity has been a cause for worry in contemporary years. Not continued ago, diversity referred to a person’s gender or indigenous group.
Diversity today encompasses differences in age, administration in an organisation, educational background, human acclimatisation or preference, concrete abilities or qualities and amusing status, bread-and-butter status, lifestyle, religion, ethnicity, and genders a part of abounding added characteristics (James, 2001).
Also the abstract suggests that diversity administration refers to efforts to animate a amalgamate workforce to accomplish up to its abounding abeyant in an candid plan ambiance area no one accumulation has advantage or disadvantage. Its focus is on alone differences rather than ability differentials. The main arguments identified in these definitions can be summarised by defining diversity as:
Diversity is an authoritative behaviour, which acknowledges and ethics differences and similarities a part of humans and how the differences can plan to advance the organisation. It as well agency compassionates the authoritative environments with an acknowledgment for gender, culture, and indigenous lifestyles.
Developing and maintaining programs that foster diversity have proven difficult for companies in which embracing diversity amounts to a cultural change. Because, company cultures are deeply rooted and the resulting beliefs are widely held, and culture is difficult to change.
Many organisations have attempted to find quick fixes for diversity enhancements, but sooner or later those firms have learned that there is no such thing as a quick fix. Fostering and managing diversity requires a comprehensive and carefully planned approach.
Given below is a diversity management model that the authors have developed through extensive literature review and issues raised by researchers and scholars in the field. The differences in ethnicity, culture, gender, age, and lifestyle impart variety of perspectives to the workplace.
All perspectives are not only essential but should be actively sought. The spirit of alternate regard, cooperation and investment through acquainted accomplishment to advance development of agents leads to synergy the action in which alive calm yields after-effects greater than the sum of alone efforts.
Proactively create and sustain an internal climate of equal opportunity for all through work force development initiatives such as job growth opportunities, through mentoring, job shadowing and training, tuition reimbursement, employee recognition, and improved communication on relevant issues and activities.
The link between workplace diversity and good management
The organisations are also waking up to the fact that managing workplace diversity is imperative. Though organisations acknowledge the importance of maintaining a diverse workforce, efforts are not in tandem with the prominence given to the issue.
Workforce diversity is throwing up complexities no doubt, but looking at the broader picture, we see that there has been a movement from simple to complex in all realms of the workplace.
System thinking has replaced a simplistic cause- effect relationship. Managements are trying to integrate and benefit from a diverse workforce by coming up with options like flexi time benefits. Gender diversity training programs aimed at highlighting the politically correct work practices and individual behaviours are gaining popularity worldwide (Christopher, 2000).
The flip side is that some managers feel that increased workforce diversity may cause management problems. Diversity brings with it the need for more flexibility, which makes management more complicated (e.g., scheduling, compensation plans, interpersonal communication, ethnic differences) (Philip, 1974).
The crux of the issue lies in the fact that women in workforce is a reality and the aim of organisations must be to think of how best to harness this vast pool of talent and not glorify the issues as complications.
The boards of companies, which expressed faith and backed their women employees, have been rewarded handsomely. Management research is now focusing on a feminine style of management that highlights the success of adopting a feminine or a softer approach to managing people. Many studies have shown that women in fact can make better managers.
Workforce diversity can be managed only through a change in the mindset. Integrating the people working in an organisation successfully should be a product of the organisational culture and not a stand-alone training program. The day the women in organisations are accepted as being indispensable, just as in a family, that will be the day the term gender diversity with its negative connotations will cease to exist.
Efforts to build a diverse climate and creation of multicultural opportunities will not by themselves create an organisation that values diversity unless management practices reflect this commitment (Robert, 2001). If diversity is to be optimised, top managers must recognise the capabilities of all employees, take their ideas seriously, and support both minority and majority-group employees.
Managers must communicate effectively and accept employees who do not speak the local language. Finally, managers must respect the cultural beliefs and needs of employees and truly value the diversity of the workforce. Strategies that can lead to diversity include diversity-awareness training and the hiring of managers and top executives who reflect variety in gender, race, and ethnicity.
The role administration practices plays in acknowledging assortment highlights the charge to appoint and advance top-level agents associates who are acute to the apropos of multicultural employees. The management can do this by incorporating this in their hiring practices to hire people who are sensitive and can relate to multicultural workforce.
Conclusion
Diversity among workforce becomes an asset business. It enables organisations to have a command over choice. Diversity brings to organisations unique perspectives. Understanding the demographic differences among the workforce can help organisations capitalise on diversity and avoid negative stereotyping.
If managed properly, diversity optimises the willingness and ability of all employees to contribute to organisational success besides, encouraging each to draw fully on the talents, different points of view, skills, and practices that have been made available by diverse workforce. Diversity, if managed badly, can become a liability.
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Workplace inclusion, diversity, and belonging have developed into crucial components of a philosophy that permeates all enterprises. Due to the value they provide, hose concepts swiftly ascend to the forefront of enterprises’ priorities. They not only help to create more content, open-minded, and productive staff, but they also enhance the financial performance of the companies. Nevertheless, building a multicultural and welcoming work atmosphere remains one of today’s greatest difficulties. It requires more than a training film or a talk on being kind to employees to achieve real diversity and inclusion. Numerous reputable firms have been making efforts to establish, enhance, and continuously monitor these values on a variety of fronts, including employment, promotions, opportunities, conduct, and more. The commercial argument for this is becoming more widely understood. Although social justice is frequently the driving force behind these initiatives, businesses have started to see belonging, inclusion, and diversity as key success factors, more particularly, as crucial facilitators of development.
There are three main concepts that serve as the base for the paper – inclusivity, diversity, and belonging. Included are people’s participation and empowerment. People are valued and respected when they are included. When they are their true selves, employees perform at their best. One has to feel included in order to be one’s true self. In the workplace, diversity contains all aspects of the human experience, including ethnicity, financial background, community, gender and sexual identity, religion, and culture. It necessitates the eradication of all prejudices and the use of exclusively merit-based hiring. When an employee feels accepted, included, and has a sense of identification with a particular organization, group, or location, they are said to have a sense of belonging, which is a sense of safety and support (Traavik, 2019). Employee perceptions of their reception among coworkers and inclusion for suitable changes, activities, and more are influenced by how they feel appreciated, acknowledged, and included at work. Thus, the paper aims to provide a reflection on the three critical workplace factors and analyze their role and importance in the organization.
Reflection
In order to get a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusivity, there is an example of an incident that happened at Google regarding those issues. A former Google employee filed a lawsuit against the business on Friday, alleging that it routinely discriminated against Black employees by assigning them to lower-level positions, underpaying them, and depriving them of advancement prospects. April Curley, who was employed at Google since 2014 before being fired in 2020, is the complainant (Wakabayash, 2022). While working there, Ms. Curley created initiatives to attract candidates from historically Black institutions and universities, which assisted the corporation in hiring Black personnel. She claimed that “Google maintains employment rules and procedures that have a discriminatory impact against Black employees all across the United States and is involved in a countrywide pattern or practice of deliberate race discrimination and retaliation (Wakabayash, 2022). According to the lawsuit, Google often employed Black employees with lower job statuses than were suitable for their level of expertise (Wakabayash, 2022). Pay is linked to work for groups; hence the business was able to pay Black employees less than their white counterparts.
The lawsuit reflects several grievances Black workers have made throughout the years regarding working at Google. Even as it expanded into one of the biggest private companies in the country, the business has had trouble diversifying its workforce in terms of race and gender, particularly among its highly compensated engineering personnel. 4.4% of Google’s U.S. employees were of different ethnicities, one of which is Black, which is much less than the national average for content creation and search organizations (Wakabayash, 2022). Ms. Curley also claimed that her workplace was unfriendly. She said that during the course of her six years there, bosses frequently confused her with two other Black coworkers. She said that a boss had asked which of her coworkers she desired to have an intimate relationship with and that neither she nor those coworkers had been given the opportunity to speak or present at crucial meetings. Eventually, Ms. Curley got a decrease in wage and was fired.
However, this experience positively impacted the organization’s approach toward diversity and stimulated it to work on more effective practices. By 2021, they have increased the leadership representation of ethnic minorities by 30%, and by 2025, management expects to have doubled Black+ representation across all of our U.S. locations. Google is concentrating on a lot more than hiring as we work toward our representation objectives. To enhance hiring, advancement, and engagement for disadvantaged minorities at Google, our recruitment leaders collaborate closely with internal organizations such as Black Googler Network. New onboarding initiatives are being introduced to all members of the program. In addition, the company strives to help Googlers experience the new, improved mental health services and internal mentoring initiatives.
During the observation of the situation, I experienced certain feelings connected with the diverse and inclusive practices in the company. The most frustrating fact is that Google seemed to have more focus on the image of the progressive company when it was not reflecting the reality. Moreover, it is highly possible that not only Google but other organization that portrays themselves as diverse companies follow the same pattern. If such a huge corporation still does not manage to ensure the well-being of all the employees and implement innovative practices, then the overall situation in the workplace might not be positive. It is devastating that usually, it is hard or even impossible to say if the certain company follows the chosen direction or only pretends to work on the issue. Mostly, due to the employees that have the courage to speak to the public about the inappropriate situations happening in the workplace, people can recognize if the company does any actions.
This incident reflects the major problem that exists in society, and even despite any personal beliefs and biases, it is still a relevant issue. Regarding my personal values, I strongly stand for inclusivity and diversity in general, and I feel that there should be a lot more for people of color and all minorities. For instance, the framework of belonging is something that I use in evaluating the case. Employees should feel accepted and valued in the company, whose ultimate goal is to provide a safe and secure environment for work. Unfortunately, there were signs that black employees do have such a positive experience in the company, which means that there are certain problems with diversity and inclusivity.
Observation Summary and Experience
Although I have never experienced anything like that personally, I have read articles and news about such cases in the companies. Even though I did not witness or experience such problems as inclusivity, I learned through the media and conversations with minority representatives about such cases. All the time, the conditions were rather similar when the companies claimed that they stand for inclusivity, but inside, employees experienced discrimination.
Google, for example, demonstrated certain disruptive behavioral patterns in this situation. Although the corporation aimed to hire more black people, the positions that were offered to them were significantly lower than for other ethnicities (Lopez, n.d.). I examined the case through the concept of diversity and inclusion, which was significant in evaluating the incident. Some of the skills regarding those concepts that were useful are openness. Openness to many different types of thoughts, experiences, methods, and practices retains curiosity when faced with something novel, strange, or distinct. It helps to be receptive to new ideas and potential biases. Moreover, being open to new ideas and perspectives enables us to solve challenging issues. In addition, it would be helpful to view the situations from different perspectives and broaden the sphere of perception. Taking into account what someone else could be feeling or thinking and actively looking for other points of view to help in decision-making and problem-solving, holding a variety of truths. Empowering decision-making and voices across a diverse spectrum of identities by adopting a different perspective allows for better comprehension of cultural variances and fosters justice and belonging. Those skills will be useful; for example, I evaluate the organizational performance regarding inclusivity and diversity.
Significant Factors Underlying the Experience or Observation
The major factor that underlines the observation is the existence of quantity, but not the quality of the diversity practices. The company hired racial minorities but failed to provide them with opportunities for development and made them experience a lack of sense of belonging (Adejumo, (2021). The experience was driven by compliance since Google’s statement did not manage the actions. The situation was beneficial for the organization even though they were sued by the ex-employee; it made them reconstruct the way the professional responsibilities were distributed among the racial minorities. Thus, eventually, it had positive results on the corporation’s culture and values. Diversity and inclusivity are a priority at the CEO level, and they are valued at all organizational levels of management from the concept of inclusion.
Reconstructing – Reconstruction of Future Practice or Professional Understanding
From the case of Google, I have learned that the company’s purposes and actions do not always match each other. It is important to evaluate not only the visible outcomes but look deeper into what is happening inside the organization. Through the concepts of diversity, inclusion, and belonging, I would suggest certain methods for the improvement of the situation in the company. Firstly, increasing cultural variety provides insights into fostering well-being for all people and utilizing diversity’s advantages at work, which improves performance (Krause, 2019). Secondly, position advertising can explicitly mention the purpose of hiring and retaining a multicultural workforce that provides an inclusive atmosphere in order to improve and encourage candidate pool diversity (Martinez-Acosta & Favero, 2018). Finally, bullying occurs often in this context, whether it occurs at work, in social settings, or in an educational environment. It is crucial to inform workers about the value of inclusion and diversity of all kinds (Prayson & Rowe, 2019). People need to believe there is a place they can turn to for support and assistance if they are being bullied, and such conduct has to be handled immediately.
Conclusion
Overall, the paper provided a reflection on the three critical workplace factors such as diversity, inclusivity, and belonging, and analyzed their role and importance in the organization. Those frameworks are necessary to apply to ensure the development and productivity of the organization along as well being of each employee. Although companies try to use some methods to promote diversity, it may not be enough for full inclusion and requires more work and strategic planning. Eventually, it benefits not only the employee but the corporation themselves due to the greater variety of people in the workplace with different backgrounds and creative perspectives.
Krause, W. (2019). Leading in times of cultural diversity: Achieving wellbeing, inclusivity, and organizational performance. In The Routledge companion to management and workplace spirituality(pp. 250-260). Routledge.
Martinez-Acosta, V. G., & Favero, C. B. (2018). A discussion of diversity and inclusivity at the institutional level: The need for a strategic plan. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 16(3), A252.