ASB 4426: Contemporary Issues in Management Assignment Sample 2024
Introduction
A business company having a diverse workgroup can provide significant benefits to the organization since it brings distinct opinions, ideas and perspectives that can lead to effective decision making and enhance problem-solving ability. However, bringing a diverse team of individuals into the organization can generate several challenges and issues. This report is going to review the contemporary issues regarding promoting diversity and cultural harmony in the company.
Reflection
Contemporary issues faced by individuals in management maintaining diversity in the workplace
Generational difference creating communication issue
Communication is one of the common issues that can be identified in a company that is working along with a diversified group of people. As a manager, I have observed this issue while leading a diverse team during various project operations.
I have come across a various variety of reasons that were influencing these issues such as different communication styles, language variety and employees suffering from hearing loss. In my opinion, these issues can significantly hamper the way a company must operate and lower the efficiency of the performance and lead to total failure in the project (Fryczyńska, 2021).
As a manager, I have observed that on many occasions few of my team members used to communicate via phone while others preferred slack messaging. This had created mismanagement in communication and delayed the deadline of my project.
However, I have tried to bring changes in the mode of communication such as verbal, non-verbal and written communication during my project work so that my team members are able to communicate on one single platform at a time. According to Kheiwa et al. (2018), a communication gap creates mismanagement in the organization and delays results.
I provided proper guidance on when and how to use such a platform on various occasions so that it can be beneficial for both groups in order to work in coordination while enhancing team performance. My personal opinion in the situation is to use slack messaging as a mode of informal communication for asking quick questions while using phones during in-person meetings.
Additionally, it was also suggested that using zoom calls for communication will be better in order to have an in-depth conversation with the stakeholders (Rajabally, 2022). I also found that some of my employees were unable to compete with other employees since English was their second preferred language. I guided my team members to speak slowly and clearly while having a conversation in order to express themselves more clearly.
Misunderstanding among groups due to cultural mix
As a manager, I was able to manage my company for the last ten years and as my business was growing the company was creating a diverse team of workers and clients. Figueroa et al. (2019), personally believe that diversity enriches the workplace, however, it can also complicate certain situations. I have observed that cultural differences have created a few conflicts, misunderstandings and interference with my productivity.
Ignorance and stereotype behaviors regarding other religions, traditions and mannerisms have led to disruptions and caused few employees unable to work effectively (Rakitskii, 2020).
During my initial days in the company, I was assigned to conduct a meeting with an Arab client. During the meeting, I was sitting on a chair while crossing my legs while the sole of the shoe was facing the client. In a later phase, one of the team members that it was considered a disrespectful act according to their culture, no wonder I did not get the deal, reminded me.
I have always emphasized cultivating cultural understanding in order to interact with employees and future clients who belong to distinct cultures and countries. I have always tried to solve these problematic issues raised in the workplace, which can hamper the prosperity and well-being of the workers.
Palla and Billy (2018) stated that dealing with clients from Eastern cultures leads to lengthy informative sessions in order to confirm a negotiation. While dealing with clients from the US requires short sessions in order to make quick decisions. I have always put emphasis on my employees to understand the importance of cultural differences as they can affect my business company and to eliminate misunderstanding by either party. I have always tried non to jump to conclusions during an unexpected encounters with my employees or clients.
As per the comments of Colovic and Williams (2020), when there is a huge amount of diversity in an organization, it becomes tough to manage all of them. As a manager, I have also faced several issues regarding misunderstandings among teams since there is a huge amount of diversity in teams.
As per the statement of Reddy and Jadhav (2019), the main reason for this issue is a cultural mix that triggers several problems including misunderstanding among groups. In my opinion, diversity is necessary for the growth of organizational performances, however, when it turns into conflict it becomes a major issue that is difficult to be managed. As stated by Colovic and Williams (2020), as per the traditional conflict management theory, people always try to involve in conflict as troublemaker.
In this theory, people are considered troublemakers who always get involved in a conflict. In this case, since there is a huge amount of diverse employees in my company, all of the employees get involved due to cultural mix. Conflicts get triggered due to misunderstandings and the same thing happened in my company.
As opined by Zhang (2020), as per the concept of Modern conflict management theory, conflicts are the inevitable and natural outcome of human interaction. Therefore, it is quite natural that people will get involved in a conflict since it is the natural outcome while an interaction (Russen et al. 2021). Employees from different cultural backgrounds were unable to interact with each other properly and got involved in the conflict.
Differences in perspective leading to slower decision making
As a manager, I have faced many situations where differences in perspectives, ideas, and opinions led to innovation, enhanced productivity and improved performance of the business. As opined by Podgorodnichenko et al. (2020), however, the certain situation, it has created a major problem for me to make quick decisions on certain projects that cause slow progress in the procedure.
In my workplace, I have managed to gather fresh talents with great minds who have always given me their suggestions d feedback on various occasions during making critical decisions. However, Individuals have found themselves in a dilemma in certain situations where my team members bring up a crucial point, which needs to be explored and evaluated properly (BAPEER, 2022). Such a situation has caused me to hold my decision on the certain aspect while slowing down my progress.
In such a situation I have always tried to give space to such issues in order to allow my team members to consider their distinct ideas so that they can have a debate and come out with a more informed decisions. According to Gąsowska (2020), this situation has benefited my team members as well as me since, it gave me an opportunity to explore those things which were out of my expertise.
As a manager, it is the job of the manager to make a final decision before moving forward or taking any critical action (Jiang et al., 2018). All my decisions were based on taking several considerations and revaluation that makes sure is validity and effectiveness. This procedure makes sure that my decision always acknowledges and recognizes the contribution made by my team members so that they feel valued.
As per the statement of Reddy and Jadhav (2019), according to the concept of Herbert Simon’s decision-making theory, this is a conflict between non-action and action. This theory provides the chance to evaluate the world with more realistic views where outputs are affected by the taken decision (Agyemang-Mintah and Schadewitz, 2019).
In my company, I have faced difficulties in decision-making due to differences in perspective. Since there is a huge amount of diversity in my company, therefore, I have to deal with several issues regarding decision-making. Since employees of a company come from different cultural and educational backgrounds, therefore, they have different types of perspectives (Zhang, 2020).
Along with that, they have different types of perspectives to handle any situation. Difficulties arise when different types of opinions come from different employees and I had to acknowledge them.
Discrimination in workplace
I have always felt that my company provides an equal and fair place to my diversified employees where they feel included and protected rather than marginalized and mocked. However, despite all the great strides forward, I have observed a few cases of discrimination that took place in my company from time to time.
Daniel (2019) stated that is their duty to identify what constitutes discrimination in my organization since my employees deserve to be equally and fairly and also not to break any rules that can hamper my organization’s culture and workplace.
As per the opinion of Lebedev et al. (2020), discrimination in the company or workplace gets generated due to certain prejudice or when a worker is treated unfavorably on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, religion, maternity and pregnancy or disability. I have seen people mistreating and judging other since they possess or show distinct attributes and characteristics compared to other staff member.
Such acts are unlawful and can cause severe damage to the person’s beliefs and the ethics of the company. O’Cass and Wetzels (2018) believe that direct discrimination can occur when someone is mistreating an employee and giving fewer favors than another employee.
During my earlier days in the company, I have seen my superior turning down one of the employees even though he possessed all the technical knowledge and experience. Few of my colleagues got less remuneration than others without any reason and it was done on the basis of their protected characteristics. According to Lis (2018), managers must try to eliminate all the possible reasons that can influence discrimination in the workplace. I have mentioned various guidelines that all the employees have to follow and to maintain work ethics.
Gender inequality in business organisation
Gender diversity or lack of gender diversity in a company can be seen on various occasions such as during socialization as a child, through the job application and education process along with employment and promotion process.
According to Tidd and Bessant (2018), despite the various steps taken by the organization and public welfare programmers, I think society is still a long way to go in order to achieve true equality, especially in well-regulated areas like employment. I have come across various organizations where that have been empowering women enrollment for managerial posts and giving them the opportunity to participate in boardroom.
However, Delios et al. (2021) have personally observed that companies need to increase the power participation in boardrooms and for managerial posts. The proportion of women population in managerial positions is still less and I feel that the medical salary of women is comparatively less than the men competing at the same level.
On many occasions, I have received complaints from my female co-workers that they have faced gender discrimination in the workplace and it has negatively affected their self-esteem and job performance. Klemeš et al. (2020) stated that this kind of situation has put a major strain on me since, as a manager, it is my job to eliminate such kinds of obligations and unethical work.
I have analyzed many journals and articles that have shown inequality in achievement by men and women in empowerment, health and the labor market. As per the opinion of Liu and Lee (2020), with increasing inequality in gender diversity all around the world people, the current situation of my company is still in a better position.
In having observed that in this covid-pandemic it got difficult for a few of my female coworkers to cope-up with the work since they have to manage both professional work and home simultaneously.
One of my female employees was facing difficulties in her job since she was going through pregnancy and I ensured that her health is not affected due to the work strain. As a manager, I ensured that my management team gives utmost priority to female co-workers while supporting them on various occasions.
Physical and mental disability unable to navigate in the workplace
Disabled employees do contribute to companies’ goals and they are part of a large team and responsible equally for the success and failure of the company. Brammer and Clark (2020) believe that disabled person faces difficult times while navigating through the company’s workplace since it is not possible to arrange proper accommodation for them.
For example, the availability of wheelchair ramps is limited in the company hence; workers will find it difficult to access all the areas of the workplace. Hamouche (2021) has observed that in many cases few employees need service dogs as an assistant while, most of the company does not permit dogs in their workplace. As a manager, I have ensured that my company provides all the necessary assistance and aid to disabled people.
I have seen that few of my co-workers do not feel comfortable while working with disabled employees, which lowered the morale value of my employees. As a manager, I conducted staff meetings where I showed these issues and asked them to rectify their behaviour and take responsibility for them.
According to Bailey and Breslin (2021), managers have to ensure that their company shows utmost respect to all the workers and works in cooperation while keeping patience in order to make them feel warm and welcome. I have always been supportive of my disabled employees and always avoided derogatory and discriminatory remarks.
I was always determined to provide a comfortable and fair work environment to all my co-workers who are having mental and physical disability in order to assist them while creating a diverse workforce.
Generation gap creates difficulties for employees to adapt
A workplace comprises of workforce belonging to different age groups and in my opinion, I have found that a major part of my workforce consists of millennial. According to Sulaiman et al. (2020), having a major part of the workplace observing a generation gap can lead to certain difficulties for a few portions of the employee while adapting to new changes.
I have found that with workplace consisting of the younger generation brings certain changes that replace the outdated working system or systematic hierarchy. On the other hand, Collings et al. (2021) stated that the older generation finds it difficult to adapt according to them, which creates certain issues like mismanagement, communication gap, and delays in processing.
Husain et al. (2019) have observed that while the company was expanding, it was developing a more diversified group of people ranging from teenagers to senior employees. As a result, it created cliques and developed social circles while few workers feel isolated.
On many occasions, I have observed that many of my employees from different age groups disagree on certain decisions. In order to remove such dilemmas, I have ensured that my organization follows open communication for exchanging their ideas, thoughts and messages. This has ensured that my employees work in a team and are cooperative with each other while bridging the gap between generations.
Inefficiency in offering employee satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is essential to be maintained in a workplace to improve the sustainability and efficiency of business performances in this rapidly changing business market. As per the view of Imhanzenobe (2021), while talking about Covid-19, it has been observed that employees, in some scenarios, have not been provided appropriate support from their organization.
In case, an organization has been holding an effective and diverse culture, it helps promote better employee satisfaction. The lack of acceptance often found in diverse cultures has negatively affected the health of both businesses and the individuals who were with me.
During the initial phase of my career, Covid-19 imposed a negative impact on my business, employees were affected drastically due to the critical situation, and I was majorly concerned about their wellbeing (Fryczyńska, 2019). This situation has put a strain on me and I had to make drastic decisions in order to save the business while keeping the well-being of our employees.
While keeping the guidelines issued by the government, my team and I decided to allow employees to work remotely keeping safety on utmost priority. In my opinion, I observed that a major proportion of my employees felt disconnected while working from home and were unable to connect with their colleagues.
This covid-19 pandemic has strained and put a lot of pressure on the diversity and cultural harmony of the company while putting the employee-manager relationship at risk, which was beyond any anticipation. According to Rajabally (2022), it was uncertain for the manager where this relationship between employer and employees will stand in the future.
I along with my management did my best to provide support to our worker’s health, livelihood and moral values to a certain degree and also support them in their success and failures. As a manager, it was my priority to support and motivate my employee during this crucial time and I believe that my employees are a part of my family.
I found that the virus affected few of my employees and their family members were unable to get treated properly. In such a crucial situation, I was able to provide financial aid and support to my employees and managed to motivate them during their hardship
Conclusion
It can be concluded that a company with a diverse team can have the opportunity to enhance the performance of the employees. However, it is also true that having a diverse team within an organization also has to face several challenges while managing the team.
Since a diverse team comes with different types of experiences, knowledge and skills, therefore, it becomes really difficult to manage the team. In this type of situation, conflict among employees arises since they come from the different educational and cultural backgrounds. Although there are several benefits if having a diverse team, still a company may face several challenges in promoting diversity and cultural harmony.
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