Best Practices in Diversity Management

[Excerpt] The International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) has undertaken a human resource benchmarking project with the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE). IPMA is an organization representing over 1,700 organizations and 2,500 individuals involved in public sector human resource management. The Association’s mission is to optimize organizational and individual performance in the public service by providing human resource leadership, professional development, information and services. IPMA has established an International Human Resource Advisory Board to facilitate the exchange of information on international human resource developments. The International Human Resource Advisory Board has 37 members from 35 countries and international organizations. Additional information about IPMA can be obtained at http://www.ipma-hr.org

Penerapan Diversity Management dalam Rangka Meraih Competitive Advantage (Studi pada PT Petrokimia Gresik)

Diversity Management is required by an organization to manage the diverse human resources in order to maximize the advantages of diversity to achieve organizational goals. Responding to the development of the external environment of the company whether economic development, market, technology, social trend, and social environment, each company is required to adapt to the environment in order to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment. The Company consists of individuals each of whom has individual dfferences in terms of demographic factors including background of education, age, gender, and culture, skill, perception, behavior, and personality. Managing the diversity of human resources means facilitating individuals with diverse backgrounds to get involved in every organizational process until the goal of achieving a competitive advantage is achieved. Diversity if managed well can help companies achieve competitive advantages. The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the implementation of Diversity Management in order to achieve competitive advantages in PT. Petrokimia Gresik. Kеywords: Diversity, Diversity Management, Competitive Advantage АBSTRАK Manajemen keragaman diperlukan oleh sebuah organisasi untuk mengelola sumber daya manusia yang beragam dengan tujuan untuk memaksimalkan keragaman tersebut guna mencapai tujuan organisasi. Menanggapi perkembangan lingkungan eksternal Perusahaan baik perkembangan ekonomi, pasar, teknologi, trend sosial, maupun lingkungan sosial, setiap Perusahaan dituntut untuk mampu beradaptasi dengan lingkungan agar tetap bertahan hidup di lingkungan bisnis yang semakin kompetitif. Perusahaan terdiri atas individu yang masing-masing memiliki perbedaan (individual dfference) baik dari sisi faktor demografi yang meliputi latar belakang tingkat pendidikan, umur, gender, dan budaya, maupun kemampuan dan keahlian (skill), persepsi, perilaku, dan kepribadian. Mengelola keragaman SDM berarti memfasilitasi individu dengan berbagai latar be!akang yang berbeda untuk mau terlibat dalam setiap proses organisasi hingga tujuan untuk meraih keunggulan kompetitif tercapai. Keragaman apabila dikelola dengan baik dapat membantu Perusahaan meraih keunggulan kompetitif. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan serta menjelaskan penerapan manajemen keragaman dalam rangka meraih keunggulan kompetitif di PT. Petrokimia Gresik. Kаtа Kunci: Keragaman, Manajemen Keragaman, Keunggulan Kompetiti

“Global” Diversity Management: The Case of Automobile Manufacturing Companies in Japan

Diversity management has been extensively studied in domestic settings. However, domestic diversity management research is inadequate for understanding diversity management concerns of global firms at the level of their strategic decision-making and cross-national coordination activities. The aim of this paper is to examine Japanese global firms in the automotive industry with a view to reveal their reasons for adoption, diffusion and implementation of global diversity management activities. The field research assumes a multi-party, multilayered approach, incorporating interviews with decision leaders in key institutional actors, including diversity managers, trade union and employers’ association representatives and, subject specialist scholars. The research also involves a case study of global diversity management in the Japanese automobile industry from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Despite their global outlook, the automotive companies still retain multinational rather than global approaches to diversity management, proposals of some remedies for overcoming current tensions in effective implementation of global diversity management activities.diversity management, global, automobile industry, Japanese companies

Global Diversity Management: Towards a Conceptual Framework

[Excerpt] Compared to research on cross-national differences in diversity management, more research has been conducted within the second key area of global diversity management – that on the effective management of culturally diverse teams and organizations, and on the development of global competence among employees. Indeed, research on multicultural teams (e.g. Earley and Gibson, 2002), global competence (e.g. Chang and Tharenou, 2004; Earley and Peterson, 2004), and conflict management in multicultural groups (e.g. Barkema et al., 2003) has been emerging in the last decade; it simply has not been labelled a part of global diversity management per se. However, to date, there are no unifying frameworks for studying global diversity, with the exception of one by Mor Barak (2000), which focuses on the connection between subsidiaries and the larger communities in which they are embedded. While we agree that this is an important issue, many leaders of global firms first want to know how to manage global diversity within the confines of their organization. Thus, one of our goals in introducing this special issue on global diversity is to propose one such framework, to serve two primary aims: (a) to provide a framework within which to situate the papers that appear in this special issue; and (b) to stimulate future research in the area. In what follows, we briefly describe this framework, and then we introduce the papers for the special issue

Implementing diversity management in retailing: exploring the role of organisational context

Diversity management is a means of managing customer and employee differences for the benefit of the organisation. This qualitative study considers how contextual factors influence diversity management implementation in different retailing environments. Exploratory research was conducted in three SBUs of a UK retailing group: the UK high street SBU, the US operations and the online SBU. Despite different cultural, legal and historical differences between the UK and US, these factors did not lead to significantly different ways of dealing with diversity in the UK high street and US businesses. Instead the extent to which individual differences were recognised was influenced by the selling environment and the retailer’s size and structure. The paper recommends that retailer’s need to develop a ‘home-grown’ approach to diversity management that acknowledges their organisational context

Diversity management and the business case

Managing for diversity is a management strategy that intends to make productive use of (ethnic and other) differences between individuals. It is based on the premise that - at least if they are well managed - diverse teams will produce better results and diverse companies will gain market advantage. In contrast to other employment equity policies, diversity management is primarily driven by the business case, i.e. by the argument that diversity and/or its management will increase organizational efficiency and profitability. With diversity management as a business practice becoming more and more popular in Europe, the question of whether this policy actually delivers the business benefits its advocates promise, becomes increasingly relevant to anyone involved in the discussion and implementation of employment policies relating to ethnic and other minorities. An examination of the literature, however, shows that there is no unanimous answer regarding the business benefits of diversity and its management. While for many advocates of diversity management the business case seems to be rather self-evident, academic research on the effects of diversity provides mixed and inconclusive results and has led critics to see a mismatch between research results and diversity rhetoric (Kochan et al 2003: 5). --

Diversity management in Australian companies: complicance or conviction?

[Abstract]: The perceptions of managers regarding diversity management in a sample of Australian companies was measured by a Diversity Survey adapted from Gardenswartz & Rowe (1993). The survey measures 277 managers’ perceptions on symptoms of diversity related problems; openness to change of a company; the valuing and management of diversity in the companies; organisational barriers to diversity; individual attitudes towards diversity and organisational practices and policies. The majority of companies are primarily in the monocultural phase of evolution towards diversity sensitive workplace and need to be quicker to implement change initiatives such as diversity management. Companies in the multicultural phase and non-discriminatory stages of evolution are more open to change. Many individual managers indicate that they recognise and value diversity and are eager to redesign policies and practices to more effectively harness diversit

Implementation of Diversity Management Programs in Public Organizations: Lessons from Policy Implementation Research

The U.S. workforce is becoming more diverse, particularly in the public sector. As a result, a number of public-sector employers have initiated diversity management programs aimed to assist different types of employees in their needs at work. While much of the public administration literature has focused on these programs and what makes them work, it has largely ignored a cognate area of study that has much to say about the success of such programs: the policy implementation literature. This paper uses policy implementation research to develop five guidelines for public managers who wish to develop a successful diversity management initiative. Working Paper 06-1

Integrating diversity management initiatives with strategic human resource management

Managing diversity is usually viewed in broad conceptual terms as recognising and valuing differences among people; it is directed towards achieving organisational outcomes and reflects management practices adopted to improve the effectiveness of people management in organisations (Kramar 2001; Erwee, Palamara & Maguire 2000). The purpose of the chapter is to examine the debate on how diversity management initiatives can be integrated with strategic human resource management (SHRM), and how SHRM is linked to organisational strategy. Part of this debate considers to what extent processes associated with managing diversity are an integral part of the strategic vision of management. However, there is no consensus on how a corporate strategic plan influences or is influenced by SHRM, and how the latter integrates diversity management as a key component. The first section of the chapter addresses the controversy about organisations as linear, steady state entities or as dynamic, complex and fluid entities. This controversy fuels debate in the subsequent sections about the impact that such paradigms have on approaches to SHRM. The discussion on SHRM in this chapter will explore its links to corporate strategy as well as to diversity management. Subsequent sections propose that managing diversity should address sensitive topics such as gender, race and ethnicity. Finally, attention is given to whether an integrative approach to SHRM can be achieved and how to overcome the obstacles to making this a reality