Organizations, Ethical Conduct & Diversity Management

Essay 001

Asif Naimur Rashid

California Southern University

Course: MGT 87500

06/10/2016

Dr. Janet Booker

Organizations, Ethical Conduct & Diversity Management

Review of Subject

The first chapter in the reading material provides a broad definition of Organization Behavior, explains the different theories, methods and techniques that are commonly used to measure productivity of an Organization and the elements that influence it. In the second chapter, the discussion extends to describing the impact of managing diversity in an Organization and the various theories to support managers and leaders in an Organization to effectively handle workforce diversity.

The content of the first two chapters cover the following areas:

• Definition of Organization Behavior
• Four Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Human & Social Capital
• Definition of Management and Characterization of 21st Century Managers
• Carroll’s Global CSR pyramid
• Identification of four of the seven general ethical principles
• Four layers of Diversity
• Differences between affirmative actions and managing diversity
• Discussion on why a woman’s career is best viewed as traveling through a labyrinth
• Demographic trends around racial groups, education mismatches and aging workforce
• Managerial implications of increasing diversity in workforce
• Positive and negative effects of diversity
• Barriers and challenges to manage diversity
• Organizational practices used to effectively manage diversity as identified by R Roosevelt Thomas Jr.

Discussion

The traditional behavior research methods have not been able to really define how people’s workplace behavior is optimally influenced; this has, for long, led to naïve and misleading conclusions about how to deal with people in an Organization to drive result (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). As a natural consequence, new theories and techniques have been introduced to understand the workforce better and to improve the work environment. One such successful method is the Total Quality Management (TQM) that puts strong emphasis on quality of work, the customers and the employees, and on building trust and teamwork (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). With the rise of Net Generation, the significance of Knowledge workers have also multiplied, and the need to put more focus on Human and Social Capital is even more crucial now (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). Effective application of any OB technique in an Organization is not an easy task and it demands certain leadership skills from a manager. In this context, the Wilson managerial skills research has provided a very valuable insight about dealing effectively with people by demonstrating what managerial skills matter. It is also true that today’s workplace is undergoing immense changes and the 21st Century managers have a mandate to adapt to new collaborative techniques and leadership styles (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). It has been observed that the Organizations that follow Dialogic Organizational Development methods have seen better results as their leadership seem to know how to deal with adaptive challenges of the complex world (Bushe & Marshak, 2016). But this drastic paradigm shift towards a more open culture in a workplace can come at a price of erosion of moral values and ethical issues if Organizations do not embark on strong Corporate Ethics and managers do not practice the general moral principles of a workplace (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). Managers need to actively behave ethically themselves, develop a meaningful code of ethics, provide ethical trainings and have organizational capability to deal with ethical issues in order to improve an Organization’s ethical climate (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013).

On the other hand, diversity management is commonly seen as a strategic tool used to gain higher productivity by leveraging (ethnic, gender, age and other) differences between individuals (Fischer, 2007). There are four layers of diversity which position personality in the innermost dimension, then a set of internal dimensions followed by a set of external dimensions and then Organizational dimension in the outermost dimension (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). There are several ways to manage diversity in an Organization and more than one methods can be used to effectively manage diversity. One such method is Affirmative action which is actually an outgrowth to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) legislation where management imposes diversity through various means to put into effect a corrective measure but without legitimizing quota system (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). There are several managerial implications to promote diversity in workplace which include meeting the general need of all employees, enhancing promotion opportunities for women and colored people, increasing general awareness of all employees, exploring opportunity of recruiting cross-cultural workforce and providing literacy training for under-educated people among others (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013). The women workforce must not feel that the Glass ceiling (an unseen barrier to grow) exists in a workplace and needs to have equal opportunity to all available exposures. But there are barriers and challenges also for managers while trying to implement diversity in an Organization. A stereotype, ethnocentric, prejudiced, unsupportive and hostile Organization will make it difficult for a manager to apply the essence of diversity and it will depend on the managerial skills being used to transform such Organization into one that believes in diversity. According to these skills, as R Roosevelt Thomas Jr. identified, managers can include/ exclude, deny, assimilate, suppress, isolate, tolerate and/ or build relationship, but the most effective skill is to foster mutual adaptation where the employee and the Organization both make adjustments to make the workplace a more congenial one (Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. 2013).