Reflective Commentary On Diversity?

Introduction

Diversity is the variation of race, ethnicity, gender and age as well as other definitions, which cause differences among the people existing in the social surroundings. Diversity in the workplace is a common practice in all the multinational corporate firms, where the people feel diversity at the workplace due to differences in language, culture, race, ethnicity and behaviour as well as knowledge and in the recent era of globalisation, the organisational leader focuses on managing the diversity in a positive way, so that it is possible for them to utilise diversity for enhancing the organisational performance (Wrench, 2016).

Diversity management

Diversity management is the strategy to explore the differences under the organisational environment where it means to tolerate each other at the same environment, understand each other’s perspectives and expand natural dimensions in each individual, while celebrating the differences and approaching the individuals with equally positive actions (Trittin and Schoeneborn, 2017). The diversity management is important or the organisations to achieve future success and mitigate the existing organisational issues such as resistance to change and internal conflicts. Managing diversity is beneficial to increase effectiveness to solve the business problems, increase creativity among the employees, flexibility of the organisation to adapt faster to the environment and acquisition of the resources in the workplace. Hereby, diversity management is effective for all the organisations to run their operational activities efficiently and expand the business smoothly by improving cooperation and cooperation in the workplace.

Theories of diversity

As per the learning theory of diversity, the diversity management program is effective to rethink the process and basic tasks of the organisation with elimination of the unnecessary tasks and thus it is contributing factor to improve the performance of the entire organisation. There are different types of diversity such as demographic characteristics, task related knowledge, skills and capabilities, values and views as well as attitude, personality and cognitive skill and hierarchical position, professionals domain and departmental affliction and seniority. The management team in the recent years aim to manage diversity in a suitable manner by increasing cooperation and communication, where the transfer of skill and knowledge can be possible at the workplace (Mor Barak, 2015). This is one of the effective factors which contribute positively in enhancing the skill and capabilities of the worker, where they can gather more in depth knowledge and understanding by sharing their expertise and thus diversity management is beneficial to improve personal and professionals learning as per the learning theory of diversity (Atyah, 2015). Additionally, the cognitive diversity hypothesis is another theory which also suggests that, there are multiple perspectives stemming from the culture differences between the groups or the organisational members which is resulting to effective problem solving and innovation. Through the diversity management, the organisational leaders try to enhance cooperation and communication where transfer of skill and knowledge raise innovation and creativity of the firm and the employees can improve their performance by working in partnership and gathering more in depth knowledge by sharing own expertise, experience and perspectives (Ashikali and Groeneveld, 2015). Hereby, the theories of diversity are effective for me to enhance my knowledge and understanding about diversity at the workplace.

Personal reflection

For reflecting upon own experience and professional practice, it would be beneficial to utilise Kolb’s reflective model, where there are four step which are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimental.

Concrete experience:

As per my experience, the diversity management is hereby beneficial for me also to ensure personal and professionals skill development, where I try to improve my emotional intelligence and interpersonal skill for understanding other’s perspectives and working with other with more cooperation and communication. The management practice of diversity at the workplace provides me a scope to improve my understanding on diversity where I come to know that, respecting each other, positive attitude, building trust and open communication as well as internal cooperation are necessary to manage diversity and develop a suitable organisational culture with harmony and support to each others for enhancing the organisational performance, which further helps to mitigate the internal issues of mismanagement and lack of cooperation and poor communication. In the professional working practice, I have faced issues in managing diversity at the workplace, where there are problems related to internal conflicts, resistance to change and discriminatory practice.

Reflective observation:

The practice of diversity management through managing transparency and accountability are also effective for me to communicate with others by managing positive attitude and enhancing open discussions and this practice in turn helps me to interact with others and develop strong corporate relationship. This is also effective to manage the diversity at the workplace where the issues like internal conflicts and discrimination can be eliminated well and through this I try to improve trust and loyalty among the colleagues and it would be beneficial for me to achieve my future career path by managing diversity at the workplace. Hereby, it can be understood that, managing diversity is necessary for the employees, who helps them to achieve future success and enhance the personal and professionals development to work with others and improve own performance as well (Trittin and Schoeneborn, 2017).

Abstract conceptualisation:

I came to know that, diversity management and utilising diversity in a positive manner are beneficial for the organisation to achieve success in near future by enhancing the creativity and innovation and reduce discriminatory practice at the workplace. Additionally, I also came to know that, diversity management is effective to improve my professional’s skill and knowledge, where I can improve interaction and cooperation with other for sharing each other’s perspectives. This in turn provides me a scope to explore more alternative solutions and improve my problem solving and decision making skill as well as I also contribute positively in improving working environment by managing harmony, freedom to work and encouraging creativity of the team members.

Active experimental:

Managing diversity at the workplace and enhancing cooperation further will provide me an opportunity to enhance the organisational performance by raising innovation and creativity. Hereby, diversity management can be considered as the effective tactic for improving learning and development at the workplace, where suitable organisational culture and harmony among the employees can be maintained well. Moreover, as per the theory of diversity management, I will try to develop my understanding on diversity, where I will focus on reducing cultural diversity and discrimination at the workplace and contributing by supporting all the members at the workplace and improving harmony to work with others collaboratively. Through diversity management, it is possible for me to enhance my personal knowledge and professional skill to work in near future with more communication and cooperation with others at the workplace. Diversity management can explore more understanding and creative solutions for the businesses, where I will try to share my experience and expertise with others and choose the best possible technique to perform better at the workplace and as per the cognitive diversity theory, it would be beneficial for me to explore more problem solving technique and improve my participation in the organisational context. Also, I will try to implement the non-discriminatory practice and the legislation such as Equality Act 2010 in order to manage diversity and enhance the positive working environment in future.

Managing diversity at the workplace and enhancing cooperation further will provide me an opportunity to enhance the organisational performance by raising innovation and creativity. Hereby, diversity management can be considered as the effective tactic for improving learning and development at the workplace, where suitable organisational culture and harmony among the employees can be maintained well. Moreover, as per the theory of diversity management, I will try to develop my understanding on diversity, where I will focus on reducing cultural diversity and discrimination at the workplace and contributing by supporting all the members at the workplace and improving harmony to work with others collaboratively. Through diversity management, it is possible for me to enhance my personal knowledge and professional skill to work in near future with more communication and cooperation with others at the workplace. Diversity management can explore more understanding and creative solutions for the businesses, where I will try to share my experience and expertise with others and choose the best possible technique to perform better at the workplace and as per the cognitive diversity theory, it would be beneficial for me to explore more problem solving technique and improve my participation in the organisational context. Also, I will try to implement the non-discriminatory practice and the legislation such as Equality Act 2010 in order to manage diversity and enhance the positive working environment in future.

Reference List

• Ashikali, T. and Groeneveld, S., 2015. Diversity management for all? An empirical analysis of diversity management outcomes across groups. Personnel Review, 44(5), pp.757-780.
• Atyah, L. A., 2015. Workplace Diversity in organizations Conceptual Framework. [online] Available at: https://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=117014 [Accessed 25 November 2019].
• Mor Barak, M.E., 2015. Inclusion is the key to diversity management, but what is inclusion?. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(2), pp.83-88.
• Trittin, H. and Schoeneborn, D., 2017. Diversity as polyphony: Reconceptualizing diversity management from a communication-centered perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(2), pp.305-322.
• Wrench, J., 2016. Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU. London: Routledge.