Diversity and Equality Management by Human Resource Managers

Question: Describe about the Diversity and Equality Management by Human Resource Managers? Answer: Introduction Human resource management is an important functional area of an organization that is concerned with the management of the most important assets i.e. human resources or employees. It is the role and responsibility of human resource managers that they should consider performing the management of organizations employees in a manner that leads to their positive level of contribution towards attaining organizational goals (Pfister, 2009). They are required to carry out diverse range of functions, but with the increasing globalization of businesses in the international markets, an important area that is identified crucial is the management of diversity and equality at workplace. Since businesses globalizes across international markets, they are faced with the problems of managing employees from diverse background from different culture (Kwak, 2003). As a result, it is argued that the management of equality and diversity is not an easy task to HR manager and this requires consideration of various important factors in ensuring the efficient management of employees in organization. Analysis of the Concept of Equality and Diversity and their Importance As human resource managers are required to perform the recruitment and selection of employees, an important area that has been gaining significant level of recognition is mainly the management of diverse workforce of the organization. Diversity has been a key concept which indicates that the people from different culture, background, castes, color and creed are allowed to work together so as to achieve organizational goals. Diversity is all about managing the people from different cultural backgrounds, and it is regarded as an important concept that is required to be practiced by HR managers (Lewis, 2001). The increasing pace with which businesses are expanding into international markets has often necessitated their HR managers to consider for areas aimed at managing diverse workforce. This is mainly because they are exposed to different nature and background of employees in their workgroups (Fujimoto, Hartel Azmat, 2013). Apart from this, the concept of workforce equality is also an important HR concept that is aimed at achieving equality within the employees of the organization. Workforce equality implies that there should be adequate level of support and equality provided to each and every employees of the organization. There should not be any kinds of discrimination on any basis or grounds within employees, neither on their gender nor on their payment or any other factor. Even there is Equal Opportunity Act in various countries aimed at providing equal treatment to employees and the HR manager is therefore required to make sure that these applicable legislations are being followed. The equal treatment along with the diversity management is important for HR managers to achieve because these aspects allow them in achieving higher level of effectiveness with respect to organizational activities (Kundu, 2003). Difficulties in Managing Diversity and Equality As the management of equality and diversity is identified as highly important for HR managers to consider, but there are various such barriers in the process that affect the ability of the HR manager to perform such activity in a positive manner. As for instance, diversity management includes the members from different cultural background which results into threats to the organizations own cultural environment. This is mainly because diverse employees try to implement their own culture and values while performing tasks. The HR managers are therefore required to create a platform that supports the management of organizational culture within the diverse employee groups of the organization (Day, 2007). In addition to the above, diversity management is also highly difficult because of higher chances of resistance by employees to work in group. Group performance is key to businesses in achieving success in the 21st century, and with such diverse people in the workgroup, it has been extremely difficult for the HR managers to ensure positive management of such diverse employees. This is regarded as a major challenge or barriers that create difficulties in performing the management of diversity in a positive way. Diversity management also includes challenges in the form of managing proper communication levels by the HR managers because of such diverse needs and backgrounds of employees. It is also evident that there are higher chances of opposition to change within the diverse members, and the implementation of diversity plans is also highly difficult because of such diverse nature of employee background (Iverson, 2000). Apart from the above difficulties in managing diversity, there are also problems and challenges to HR manager in ensuring equality within its employees. The discrimination on the part of HR managers on the basis of caste, color and creed and also on the basis of male and female employees is still persistent across organizations in different part of the globe. It has been crucial that efficient decisions should be considered aimed at promoting equality so that higher level of efforts can be achieved and better overall contribution from each and every employee would contribute towards favorable attainment of organizational goals (Daft, 2009). Factors Essential to Consider in Managing Diversity and Equality Equality within employees can be achieved by way of making its essential that each and every employee should be treated in a fair way and there should be organizational policies aimed at supporting fair treatment to employees. There should be strong rules within the organization for the HR managers that requires them to completely avoid any kinds of discrimination on any grounds. The selection of employees by the HR manager should be performed on the basis of their quality and performance, and men and women employees should be treated with equality. In these ways, the attainment of equality can be ensured and their better overall management in achieving organizational goals can become possible (Hicks-Clarke Iles, 2000) Apart from these factors, the successful diversity management also requires the consideration of various important factors. As for instance, the HR manager is required to promote diverse member groups to participate in team working and they should be assigned with projects that require team working. In addition to this, by emphasizing on cross cultural training, it could be possible to achieve better level of acceptance within employees in providing best efforts towards accomplishing the organizational goals. Diversity management can be performed by HR managers through devising policies and procedures that would necessitate employees to follow the prevalent organizational culture. The culture and values of each and every employee need to be supported with a view to accomplish higher performance levels on their part, as they would feel highly valued and satisfied from the satisfaction of their performance across organization (Barbosa Cabral-Cardoso, 2007). These are some of the major initiatives that are essential to consider by the HR manager in performing the management of equality and diversity within its workforce. They are essential because they would positively aid the management in achieving success in respect to the management of both these areas. Conclusion In this essay, it has been argued that the management of diversity and equality is highly difficult to HR managers in particular and it is therefore essential that there should be a range of strategies that should be considered by the HR manager in achieving success in this respect. As for instance, the analysis has resulted into the identification that there are large number of challenges encountered by HR managers in performing such tasks of achieving equality and diversity within their performance. The analysis has indicated that the factors such as supporting equality, promoting team work, policies and procedures requiring management to perform the management of diverse employees efficiently are essential to consider by the HR manager in achieving success in their role. References Barbosa, I Cabral-Cardoso, C 2007 Managing diversity in academic organizations: a challenge to organizational culture, Women in Management Review, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 274-288. 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