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Organizational Diversity

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Week 1 Paper: Organizational Diversity
Brandon Beaver
Texas A&M University – Commerce

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for EMBA 525
Dr. Jennifer Flanagan
June 15, 2012

Organizational Diversity
Diversity in the workplace has become more relevant with the expansion of organizations into the global market. Organizations are recognizing the need to leverage their diversity in the content of globalization to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace (Avigdor, Braun, Konkin, Kuzmycz, and Ferdman, 2007). FMC Technologies is recognized as one of the most admired companies in the Oil and Gas industry. FMC Technologies defines diversity as “the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals. Diversity encompasses race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, and sexual orientation. Experience and recent research indicate that when recognized and valued, diversity enhances individual productivity, organizational effectiveness, and sustained competitiveness.” (Define Diversity, 2012). Part of FMC’s vision is to be globally recognized as a leading company in the ability to attract, develop and retain the best people available and in the ability to free employees to achieve superior business results. They provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees by selecting, assigning, training, compensating and advancement of employees without regard to race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or veteran status (Supportive Work Environment, 2012).
My organizations motivates for diversity and inclusion are related to our global presence in the oil and gas industry. With our market share including projects in geographical regions around the world, FMC needs to ensure we retain talented employees from all areas of the world. We rely on the cultural differences and experiences to help guide our organization into new regions of the world. FMC brings individuals from different areas of the globe to work together in collective teams to educate each other on different cultures where we operate to ensure we provide professional execution from the beginning. FMC manages diversity and inclusion on the bases of regional requirements set by our customers and the countries they do work in. Some of the international areas require a specific number of national employees that need to be hired before the project is sanctioned. Part of the management style is to ensure the right individuals are employed that can work collectively with the team assigned to the project. FMC has regional offices in five different continents, which provides a diverse background of employees.
FMC provides different levels of diversity and inclusion training and education dependent on the position an employee holds. An example of this includes FMC’s Mutual Respect training course. The course is designed in three tiers, all employees, managers and supervisors, and corporate level. I feel FMC’s effectiveness in our diversity and inclusion efforts are similar to the statement provided by Anderson and Billings-Harris (2010) that diversity “training” simply does not work (p. 101). I continue to feel organizations need to have diversity training and education as more than something for employees and human resources to check off a list. It needs to be a priority, especially since we are a global organization. We will not be able to remain the industry leader if we do not educate our employees on the benefits each individual brings to the organizations culture. Employees need to be given the opportunity to work with individuals from diverse background in-order for a more thorough understanding of what diversity truly means.
FMC can provide all employees with the opportunity to participate in the all levels of diversity training. This will provide them with the different levels of training to understand what management is experiencing and requiring for all employees. More structured education needs to be made available by allowing different individuals to teach diversity training specific to his or her background. This will help everyone understand the challenges and ideals behind his or her experiences. Experience sharing is crucial for FMC’s growth in a global market.

REFERENCES
Anderson, R. & Billings-Harris, L. (2010). Changing the culture through education. Trailblazers:
How top business leaders are accelerating results through inclusion and diversity (pp.
101-117). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Avigdor, A., Braun, D., Konkin, J., Kuzmycz, D., & Ferdman, B. M., (2007). Workgroup inclusion, diversity, and performance. Retrieved from http://bernardoferdman.org/Articles/13732%20-%20Avigdor%20et%20al.pdf
No Author. (2012). Supportive Work Environment. Retrieved from http://inside.net.fmcti.com/core_values/Pages/principles.aspx No Author (2012). Define Diversity. Retrieved from
http://inside.net.fmcti.com/hrus/Documents/Training/Diversity/SCORM.htm

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