HRMT 301- WEEK 12

GCE Assignment: Diversity

Management
Group Research and Report Writing
40 Marks 15% of final course grade
11/25/2014

Tashieanna Taylor # 300 459 706

Nicole Murphy

# 300 419 043

Simon Debess

# 300 785 725

Cleriese Lewis

# 300 588 581

Research on background information would be done on diversity and participatory

management, as well as old/current program modules and initiatives. It is our main goal to
make sure these 4 aspects are implemented and integrated in our presentation at Indie
Software to promote a sense of globalization which will lead to a globalized workforce.

would be conducted to make sure that we have some credible background information on
Jer ch14 vs 2 only the lord knows our work and tribulations... for the past 400 years
200 million

AS AN HR I AM ASKED TO PREPARE A RESENTATION TO INTEGRATE THE MULTICULTURAL WORKFORCE

AND USE DIVERSITY TO ENHANCE THE ORGANIZATIONS EFFECTIVENESS
Background info on diversity and participatory management

Participatory management is the practice of empowering employees to participate in

organizational decision making. This practice grew out of the human relations movement in the
1920s, and is based on some of the principles discovered by scholars doing research in
management and organization studies, such as the Hawthorne Effect.
While senior managers still retain final decision making authority when participatory
management is practiced, employees are encouraged to voice their opinions about their working
conditions in a safe environment, protected from the potential defensiveness of middle managers
who they might criticize.
In the 1990s, participatory management was revived in a different form through advocacy of
organizational learning practices, particularly by clients and students of Peter Senge.
There is some criticism of participatory management (see Heckscher, below), particularly
because it is difficult to combine this practice with a more financially oriented approach to
restructuring that may require downsizing.
Diversity management is the recognition and valorization of individual differences. The concept of
diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique,
and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or

other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment.
Moreover, it is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and
celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity in each individual, as opposed to a pure compliance to
equality/affirmative action laws approach (Thomas, 1990). As seen from a US perspective, Diversity
management is supposed to represent a break from equality concepts such as equal opportunity and
affirmative action (Thomas, 1990 ; Thomas and Ely, 1996). However, this distinction and implicit
sequencing between diversity management and supposedly earlier equality and affirmative action laws
may not hold in all countries around the globe. For instance, in the European Union, notions of diversity
management and equality seem to be growing in parallel, and diversity management is sometimes seen
as a vehicle towards the institutionalization of equality and/or positive action legislations (Klarsfeld,
2010). As an example, in France, debates about diversity management and discrimination grew
simultaneously rather than in succession to one another
we recognize that all employees bring their differences, including group-identity differences, to the
workplace

more globalization of corporations, which will lead to a more global workforce,

marketplace, and economy
diverse work teams will become prevalent in organizations
diversity will become more of a business concern than a social concern, and be more
closely linked to competitive strategies
diverse populations will make and spend more money, and this increase in wealth will
empower diversity
senior managers will become more involved in diversity issues because they will realize
that the diverse workforce needs to be better utilized in order to remain competitive
more training professionals will face the challenge of dealing with backlash
diversity training will be integrated more with other types of training

PROVIDE BACKGROUND INFO ON DIVERSITY AND PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT

3 SPECIFIC BEST PRACTIC BEST PRACTISES PROGRAMS/ INITIATIVE
Initiatives being used in business today
Programs being used in business today
Our study confirms previous research that program success depends on many organizational aspects,
especially commitment and support from top management.

A first step in working with diversity issues is determining what concerns and barriers are the
most critical to the organization's employees. Although the specific barriers to advancement vary
from one company to another, their effect is the same in closing down the full potential of its
workforce.

We found that many barriers continue to restrict the opportunities of diverse groups. These
barriers may be from the environment, such as discrimination or stereotyping, and from
individuals, such as poor career planning or inadequate skill preparation. Both external and
internal barriers can be equally detrimental to the advancement of diverse groups. External
barriers may be more obvious than internal barriers, but minorities need to carefully assess and
identify the barriers they set for themselves and work on resolving them.

http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Managing-Cultural-Diversity.aspx

BIBLIOGRAPHY

n- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commision. (2004, November). Diversity Management Plan.

Retrieved November 12, 2014, from
http://www.prsa.org/diversity/documents/usnuclearregulatorycommission.pdf

t- American Management Association. (2014, July 17). Managing Cultural Diversity.

Retrieved from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Managing-CulturalDiversity.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicultural_and_diversity_manageme
nt