DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

* The change that has most impacted orgs in the past decade has been the growing realisation that people are an organisation’s primary source of CA (Ruona and Gibson, 2004) * Demographic changes in labour force + globalisation, has inspired HR to become increasingly more effective at developing programs that leverage the differences and diversity in the workforce * Differences in approaches: wider debate of convergent/divergent approaches to HRM

WHAT IS DM? * Broadest sense: diversity in org terms means differences between working individuals such as gender, ethnicity, colour sexuality, religion, disability, age, social status, personality, amongst other categories (Ellis & Dick, 2002) * However, important to look at diversity at a national level, as the predominant diversity issues in each country are different (Shen et al., 2009). E.g while racial equality appears to be the predominant issue in the USA, multiculturalism has always been the most important dimension of diversity in Western countries, including the EU nations, Aus and NZ. * Similarly, while religion and ethnicity separate people in India, household status (hukou) differentiates off-farm migrants from urbanities in China. * In response to the growing diversity in the WF around the world, many companies have instituted specific policies/programs to enhance recruitment, inclusion, promotion and retention of disadvantaged groups * DM has historically been used to provide a legally defensible position against charges of discrimination (free-standing approach to managing diversity (Dass and Parker, 1999) – in line with EEO and AA that emerged from the civil rights movement in the USA in the 1960s * DM is a movement away from traditional EEO policies, rather than being driven by legislation, driven by the business case * In addition, rather than negative perspective of discrimination against the staff in EEO, the emphasis on DM is on a positive perspective of the differences among all individuals * DM represents a strategic attempt by top management to obtain CA through integrating org-wide systems and initiatives that harness the difference found within its own workforce – in essence successfully harnessing diversity as a source of core competency (Cox and Beale, 1997)

USA * DM is a fairly recent development but has roots back to the 1960s and 1970s of EEO and AA * Gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s were reflected in legislation in the USA in the early 1970s. As a result of increased legal actions, employers turned to professionals to facilitate the enactment of EEO and AA directives * However, with the turn to Reaganism in the 1980s, the economic and political landscape changed and the enforcement of EEO and AA waned. Reagan’s conservative politics were not reversed by the Bush or Clinton administrations, who continued to undermine EEO and AA legislation * DM entered the org and management discourse in the late 1980s, as a response to the Workforce 2000 report, which predicted that more women, minorities, older workers and immigrants would join the US WF, and urged orgs to address WF diversity if they were going to maintain their success * As such, has been reconceptualised as a managerial approach rather than a legal issue. Orgs began to see diversity as a business opportunity with the idea that effective management of diversity has a positive affect on work productivity, problem solving, creativity and innovation and ultimately CA (Cox and Beale, 1997) * For example, IBM emphasise their commitment to MD through their diversity policies. They recognise the importance of building a WF in keeping with the global, diverse market place, to better serve their customers and capture a greater share of the on demand opportunity (IBM Web Page, 2009). AOL, an American multinational mass media corporation, also realises the strategic role of DM: ‘ It is really about looking at hoe we can influence our business from a different lens to understand how, as a global company, we have to be more culturally aware’ (Schoeff, 2009).