What additional competencies and skills are required from an HR professional managing a company’s diversity portfolio?
Today’s workforce may comprise of people from different age groups representing different generations, faith, gender and sexual orientation. They may have different ethnicity, culture, native language and they may come from any part of the world. Basing on these reality HR professionals have to make sure that they can effectively attract, retain, develop and utilize this complex heterogeneous workforce to achieve the goals of the company. With the influx of hundred thousands of skilled migrants, huge number of international students graduating from the local institutions and international worker programs the picture of the
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It is also important to understand the functions of different departments to sense how they view diversity from their end. The diversity manager must be able to help the business unit leaders to understand the implication of diversity for the business. By understanding the culture he/she should be able to know how work gets done formally and informally in the organization, discover the real strength and use it effectively. Apart from having an overall knowledge of HR practices he/she should be able to utilize and interpret operational/financial data, should know the competitions in the market and collaborate within and outside the organization. It is also important to know the external environment that affects the organization like society, regulatory, technology etc.
Cultural Competence: Since the employees come from diverse cultural backgrounds it is very important for the diversity and inclusion practitioner to understand the norms and values of different cultures. As employees from different cultures may land into conflicting situations the practitioner must be able to understand the delicate dynamics of cultural conflict and be able to resolve the conflict. He/she should preferably be fluent in more than one language to communicate effectively with the employees. While dealing with individuals he/she should be able to address one’s cultural preferences. He/she should understand complex group dynamics so that can successfully
It is very important for leaders and managers to embrace a diverse workforce. Because diversity could possibly add influence to the market share, and could widen the talent in the recruitment process for the organization. In addition, the organizations could benefit from the various perspectives and experiences; for example, different races, gender, and age groups within the workforce. However, a diverse workforce might also be challenging; for instance, leaders and managers may spend too much time in promoting
Understand cultural competence and why is it important especially for that have a diverse workforce.
From my perspective, cultural competence goes beyond tolerance for differences like ethnicity, age, gender, religion or sexual orientation. It’s not just about understanding diversity; it’s about diversity and inclusion. It requires allowing your professional and personal selves to be put in situations that push you outside of your comfort zone.
Competencies that are necessary when working in a cultural diverse environment are, value in diversity, self-awareness of cultural, understanding dynamics within cultural interaction, and the institutionalization of dynamics within cultural dynamics. When valuing diversity, the organization should be respectful and accepting of the various cultural upbringings, traditions, communication and beliefs of others, thus providing a nondiscriminatory outlook of the individual (Van Roekel, 2008) Self-awareness of culture requires an individual to have an understanding of their own culture which is shaped by their interests, knowledge, experience, values, background, skills and beliefs. This awareness helps the individual to have an understanding of who they are, how they interact with others, and where they fit in with society and family and environment (Van Roekel, 2008).
Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).
Today’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be
Then the CEO and managers need to advertise for diversity, meaning they need to seek people of all races, genders, creeds and etc. The CEO and managers should have a percentage of diversity goals to fulfil. While doing all of this they need to keep the benefits within focus.
Is God real? This is one of the greatest mysteries in life. From when I was baptized to the summer of 2012, I believed God was real, I believed that there was a supreme being who watched over and protected us and if you prayed to god, God would listen and God would answer your prayers. However during the summer of 2012, before tenth grade, it became clear to me that God was a theory to explain the unknown and nothing more. That summer before tenth grade was a summer I will never forget. It was the moment in my life when God fell from his high pedestal, smashing through my dog, and my grandparents all the way down to the very earth I stood on.
Layer one is one’s personality. This represents “a stable set of characteristics that is responsible for a person’s identity”. (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008:37) The next layer will be that of internal dimension or primary dimension as per the workinfo.com human resources website. This layer represents those attributes which we have no control over such as Age, Ethnicity, Colour or Race, Gender, physical ability and our sexual orientation. This layer also determines most of our life situations as it mainly dictate with who we interact with, where we want to stay or what we earn. The third layer of diversity is referred to as the secondary dimension or external dimension of diversity. It includes external factors which influence who we are. Examples of this will be income, geographic location (where you live or where you were born), parental status, marital status, political affiliation, believes and work experiences. Other factors will also be our appearances and our personal habits. This layer will be the one that influences your attitude and behaviour towards life and other people. Diversity training in most organisations takes place at this layer. Why? B Vaugh (2007) (as quoted by Wikipedia, 2009), defines diversity training as “training for the purpose of increasing participants’ cultural awareness, knowledge and skills,
In my opinion , the most profound philosopher happens to be Athenian Philosopher Socrates. In comparison to Prince Arjuna I believe that both philosophers possess the qualities and characteristics of very wise men. In this essay I am going to compare two philosophers who may have had different values but similar beliefs.
Passion: it’s what drives the human spirit. It’s a fierce desire of determination that persists strongly through all adversity. It’s the underlying tone in every success story, and the silent background to every screaming headline. It’s more than a moment of impulse, or an insouciant word scribbled on a scrap of paper. Every hope, aspiration, and dream that a heart craves, stems from this blazing fire of passion. Goals are what makes it possible to follow these dreams. I believe that setting goals is essential to keep on the right mental track to chase passions whether it involves a single class, academics, or life in general.
Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.
Understand the diversity in organization in the United States and figure it out diversity‘s positive and negative effects to manager and organization.
Businesses are recognizing the need and importance of investing in diversity and addition as part of their inclusive talent management practices and to frequently challenge their organizations to make the connection between those values and their group performance.. Diversity is especially fundamental in today’s global marketplace, as businesses cooperate with
'Cross Cultural Competence ' is and should be the aim of all those dealing with multicultural clients, customers or colleagues. 'Competence ' is the final stage of cross cultural understanding and signifies the actor 's ability to work effectively across cultures. Cross cultural competency is beyond knowledge, awareness and sensitivity in that it is the digestion, integration and transformation of all the skills and information acquired through them, applied to create cultural synergy within the workplace.