Free Business Essays - Managing Diversity - Briggs Ltd
To: Board ofDirectors
From: HR Manager
Re: The need for Briggs to promote and manage diversity in its workforce
Dear Directors
This report is based on research and studies I have conducted into the current HRM best practices across the retail and other sectors, and a comparison to Briggs current situation. The purpose of the report is to demonstrate that Briggs should develop policies and strategies to increase diversity across its workforce. This increase in diversity will enable Briggs to grow its customer base, sustain its competitive advantage, and also support our Eastern European growth plans. The report commences with a brief introduction to the topic of diversity and its relevance to Briggs. It then covers the need for Briggs to promote and manage diversity, and the benefits of doing so, before examining how Briggs can achieve this, before concluding with the key points and a suggested plan for developing this policy.
Introduction
Diversity is defined as the degree to which companies encourage a range of personal identities within their workforce, a range which is usually defined by gender, ethnicity, age, disability, religion and sexual orientation. However, diversity also covers personal styles and approaches to work-related issues such as problem solving and creative thinking. Since diversity is about visible differences and the management of behaviour and attributes, its implementation has relied on a variety of approaches across different industries and companies. However, whilst diversity management is generally achieved through HR areas such as recruitment, retention, behaviour management and motivation, it is also about generating competitive advantage and improving organisational resilience to changes in the market (Thomas, 2006). It is also important to distinguish between equality, which is based on compliance to regulations, and diversity, which is about valuing individual differences to enhance business results (Clements and Jones, 2006).
As a result, there is increasing interest in how companies in all markets can promote and manage diversity, both in their internal workforce, and externally for their customer base, shareholders and other investors. As a result, it is not generally accepted that, despite the book definition of diversity above, in order to truly manage and promote diversity, organisations need to go beyond merely recognising and accommodating each employee and stakeholders individual characteristics, choices and lifestyle (Mor Barak, 2005). Instead, they need to celebrate, value, and actively encourage diversity among their workforce, in order to fully maximise each individual's contribution to efficiency and to achieving the goals of the company. Studies have shown that companies which truly understand and embrace diversity in their workforce are better able to withstand challenges and exploit opportunities, in the process growing sustained long term competitive advantage (Mujtaba, 2006, Clements and Jones, 2006)
Why diversity needs to be promoted and managed
Briggs' current situation and success is based on its international reputation for quality, and its positioning as a prestigious brand. This international reputation has been cultivated by strong traditional management styles, and remains appealing to the traditional British upper middle class customers that have always represented our main customer base. However, whilst this strategy and traditional approach has enabled us to maintain our position and market share, it has the potential to hinder our future development. For example, Jason in Home Furnishings recently reported being approached by a customer who said: How come you're working here? I didn't think Briggs employed Black people. Whilst this incident is likely a one off, and Jason has accepted it with remarkable equanimity, it is indicative of the attitudes of many of our customers. They see Briggs as a white middle class institution, regressive and unchanging. Whilst this may provide some comfort to our traditional customer base, which may be uncomfortable with the increasingly diverse nature of the UK society, it is likely to discourage other ethnic and demographic groups from shopping and working in the store. This will thus harm our short term growth prospects, and also our long term market share, as our traditional customer base shrinks and is replaced by a more diverse section of society, which is more comfortable with diversity, and indeed expects it in most major businesses.
A further potential issue from the current situation is that we are at risk of violating anti-discrimination legislation by not taking a more active approach to promoting and managing diversity. This is demonstrated by Kevin in the haberdashery department who has told me, in confidence,that several of his colleagues continue to taunt him with camp Are You Being Served? jibes. Whilst Kevin has not indicated any desire to begin a formal complaint against any of his colleagues, he has indicated dissatisfaction with this situation. As a result, should we fail to address these concerns, we may be seen as being liable for any distress suffered by Kevin, due to failing to actively tackle the causes of this bullying in the workplace. If Kevin did decide to bring such a claim against us, even if we successfully defended it, the bad publicity would be very bad for our brand, and would further harm our attempts to expand our customer base.
In contrast with these potential issues that we may face by not encouraging diversity, there are several key benefits from encouraging and managing diversity. Diversity management is now seen by many theorists as a rethinking and reframing of equality management (Thomas, 2006). As a result, it is increasingly seen as an indicator of corporate social responsibility, which has particular significance in Europe with its increasingly diverse populations, homogenous leaders and aging workforce (Clements and Jones, 2006). Indeed, corporate social responsibility and a company's associated image are often a primary consideration for prospective recruits, customers, partners and investors, and diversity statements, backed up by facts, are increasingly demanded by all stakeholders in a business. The presence of strong diversity policies and evidence to support these can generate additional capital, sales, employment applications and job satisfaction, all of which are vital for a business wishing to expand in Europe, as Briggs is.
Studies of the drivers towards diversity, the strategic responses to the diversity challenge, and the stages of diversity management indicate a large variation in the existing diversity strategies and drivers for change across Europe, with UK companies promoting diversity management most vigorously (Clements and Jones, 2006). However, from the diversity statements of the top European multinational companies, the main drivers for diversity and diversity management can be seen to be increasing performance and motivation; enhancing corporate image and reputation; and meeting stakeholder needs. As a result, the majority of companies in Europe and globally, are now moving from initially ignoring diversity altogether, to promoting diversity in order to obtain sustained competitive advantage and multicultural organisational learning, which are key considerations in the modern business environment (Mor Barak, 2005)
Indeed, there are several major changes in the modern business environment that have led to a need to manage and promote diversity. Firstly, accelerating competition due to globalisation means that companies must now look to use every advantage available to them in order to compete to the best of their ability (Kirton and Green, 2005). Failure to embrace diversity at all levels across the workforce will reduce the level of organisational learning and exposure to new working practices experienced by a company. As a result, they will likely fall behind their competitors who are open to learning and using these practices, rather than drawing ahead of said competitors by embracing and managing them. Equally, restructuring following the recent recession in the world economy has led to businesses diversifying their workforce, markets and strategy in order to reduce their exposure to certain sectors of the global markets (Mujtaba, 2006). A diverse workforce and management team will be better able to see and judge all opportunities available to the company, and act accordingly to take advantage of them in all market conditions whilst a traditional company with a narrow focus risks losing its core market due to changes in the global economy.
A further consideration is that the United Kingdom has now adopted several significant pieces of legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment. These regulations are part of the government's obligations to comply with the Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation Directive, a process which began shortly after the 1997 general election when the new government announced that it would consult on the best way to tackle age discrimination in employment (Clements and Jones, 2006). This perhaps reflects the government's view that minimising discrimination in employment is a means of encouraging employers to realise the advantages of a diverse workforce, to increase the global competitiveness of Britain's businesses and industries. Regardless of the government's motives for introducing this legislation, their commitment to reducing and eliminating discrimination wherever possible is likely to lead to stronger legislation in future. As such, by doing more than merely complying with legislation, Briggs will be less likely to be caught out by new legislation and regulation in future.
What needs to be done?
Whilst Briggs needs to be active in promoting diversity across its workforce, at the same time we need to be careful about inferring discrimination from statistics alone. For instance, the fact that women constitute 80% of the workforce of Briggs, but only 13% of the management team may be explained by the excellent wages and work life balance we provide to our workforce: these women may not wish to sacrifice their work life balance for career advancement. As such, whilst we need to be sure that our company is not discriminating against our female employees and discouraging or preventing them from applying to managerial roles, we need to be careful not to try and force them to have management ambitions purely to make us appear more diverse. Thus, our focus should be on removing the various forms of discrimination, both direct and indirect, and then using limited positive discrimination to improve the diversity of our workforce (Mor Barak, 2005).
Unfortunately, whilst increasing the diversity of a workforce is a primary concern for many businesses, mainly due to the realisation that it can bring significant competitive advantage (Kirton and Green, 2005), the challenge lies in how organisations can best do this. One strategic option for increasing the diversity of our workforce is to promote diversity through our recruitment practices, by market research into our recruitment pool; building a business case to influence line managers and other stakeholders as to the need to recruit for diversity; using a variety of communication channels and strategies to reach the target candidates; and rewarding our existing employees when they successfully increase diversity through recruitment (Thomas, 2006). Promoting diversity through our recruitment literature and campaigns is also a very visible way of displaying it to our existing employees, without making overt comments about the lack of diversity in our current workforce. It will help manage the change towards a more diverse workforce by introducing diversity gradually with plenty of notice upfront (Arredondo, 1996).
Equally, well planned training on cross cultural communications and team working will be useful in enabling our existing managers and workforce to recognise the need for diversity, and also harness and manage it (Mujtaba, 2006). Managing diversity is based on the view that harnessing cultural, gender and other demographic differences will create a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where their talents are used and organisational goals are met. However, diversity can often be thought of as a politically correct requirement that does not provide significant benefits to productivity. Carrying out training to correct this view is a vital part of ensuring that our existing workforce makes new entrants from diverse backgrounds welcome (Kirton and Green, 2005). Indeed, it has been shown that good diversity training not only reduces the negatives, such as bullying, disputes, low morale, and sometimes litigation, but also helps develop and attract talent, helping develop new perspectives, learning and innovation (Clements and Jones, 2006).
This training will be extremely important for the managers who will be responsible for the new Eastern European stores, as they will need to be alert to the different working practices, shopping habits and customer service expectations of the country in which they operate (Mujtaba, 2006) As such, it may be useful to appoint a manager or director responsible for ensuring and promoting diversity across the organisation, and helping to integrate learning and experience between stores. This manager would also be responsible for supporting the expatriate staff running the new European stores, helping them to maintain a work life balance whilst working abroad for long periods of time (Mujtaba, 2006).
Finally, in order to be truly effective, diversity management strategies need to be continually reviewed, assessed, evaluated and developed (Kirton and Green, 2005). This should be done from the perspective of all stakeholders, using customer surveys, statistical monitoring, ethical and diversity reports from outside bodies, brand positioning audits, and staff surveys. Of particular importance for Briggs is the need to ensure that customers and staff see the commitment the company has made to diversity in the workforce. For customers, this will modernise and improve the Briggs brand, both in the UK and globally. For staff, it will also modernise the brand, whilst attracting talent to the company and ensuring talented individuals are welcomed, regardless of their background. To assist with demonstrating this commitment, a draft Diversity and Equality Policy has been placed in the Appendix of this report.
Managing the Change
In order to manage a major change in diversity management, managers will need to be both adaptive and innovative, embracing different methods of thinking and challenging the status quo (Thomas, 2006). This is in contrast to the current environment at Briggs, where differences are not viewed positively, as witnessed by Kevin and Jason's experiences. It has been demonstrated that, where individuals diverge greatly from group norms and the accepted parameters, they tend to under perform, or leave the company, decreasing the performance of the organisation and increasing the chance of corporate failure (Thomas, 2006). However, a team based approach to encouraging diversity will ensure that the group norms become focused around diverse teams and embrace the potential to learn from the different aspects of the team, successfully harnessing the team's creative diversity (Mor Barak, 2005) Indeed, it is often better to manage the changes associated with increasing diversity in smaller groups and teams, rather than attempting to change the entire corporate culture at once (Clements and Jones, 2006).
As such, whilst Briggs should make some sweeping changes in its diversity strategies, such as the use of a diversity policy, attempting to eliminate discrimination from recruitment and promoting diversity training, the company should concentrate on changing attitudes within small groups, both in the formal and informal organisational structure (Arredondo, 1996). For example, if there were Afro-Caribbean employees in all departments, incidents such as that which occurred to Jason would likely be avoided, as customers would see that diversity is present in all parts of our business (Mujtaba, 2006). Diversity policies should also be introduced as a positive change for the better, making sure to be clear that any changes will benefit the company as a whole, and will not affect job security or career development prospects for any existing employees. This should help overcome any possible resistance to the change; however resistance is always likely to any major change like this (Arredondo, 1996). As a result, senior management should be prepared from concerns and issues to arise, and channels should be made available for employees to air these concerns and receive a prompt reply and reassurance.
Conclusion
Briggs has developed a strong brand based on high quality and prestige. However, increasing globalisation and the desire to expand operations into Eastern Europe means that the company will need to modernise its brand and management practices in order to maintain its competitive advantage (Mujtaba, 2006) The promotion and managing of diversity should form a key component of this modernisation, as the existing lack of diversity is undermining Briggs' ability to attract talented staff and new customers. As such, Briggs should develop strategies for increasing diversity, including a guiding policy, training and recruitment plans, and a potential rebranding exercise. A fundamental part of this strategy will be to manage the internal resistance to the change, which should be addressed using the formal and informal organisational structures wherever possible, ideally through small scale group interactions leading to larger scale changes (Mor Barak, 2005).
In order to develop this strategy, we should conduct surveys and studies into the current level of diversity in our workforce, and the steps we can take to improve this. We should also examine how our customers and external stakeholders perceive our brand and diversity, and the changes, if any, that they think we should make. Finally, we should engage our workforce in all our research and policy decisions, to ensure that they are bought into our new strategy. Ideally at this stage we will look to appoint diversity champions to promote the policies throughout our workforce. This will help prepare us for the full roll out, and ensure that the strategy is supported across the company.
Appendix: Guiding Diversity and Equality Policy
Briggs is committed to promoting Equality and Diversity among our employees. We believe that this best enables our employees to grow and develop based purely on their ability and determination to improve company performance.
Everyone in the Briggs family are committed to supporting diversity and equality and eliminating prejudice from the workplace.
As part of this, Briggs will ensure that all employees will be treated fairly and equally; providing employees with:
The right to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness
The right to air their views without fear of prejudice or discrimination
The right to guidance, advice, and information on their progress and development
The right to raise issues or complain if any aspect of their work is not as expected
We have named people who can be contacted to raise any issues
We are determined to eliminate any harassment from the workplace and will take serious steps against anyone found to have harassed or bullied a colleague
We recognise the different types of discrimination and are committed to addressing these
We are committed to monitoring and improving our policies and welcome suggestions that will help us achieve this
References
- Arredondo, P. A. (1996) Successful Diversity Management Initiatives: A Blueprint for Planning and Implementation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Clements, P. and Jones, J. (2006) The Diversity Training Handbook: A Practical Guide to Understanding & Changing Attitudes, 2nd Edition. Kogan Page.
- Kirton, G. and Green, A. M. (2005) The Dynamics of Managing Diversity: A Critical Approach. London: Butterworth-Heinnemann.
- Mor Barak. M. E. (2005) Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Mujtaba, B. G. (2006) Cross Cultural Change Management. Tamarac, Florida: Llumina Press.
- Thomas, R. R. Jr. (2006) Building on the Promise of Diversity: How We Can Move to the Next Level in Our Workplaces, Our Communities, and Our Society AMACOM.
