Managing diversity and development

Introduction: Human resource development (HRD) and diversity management are conceptually the integrated terms, however these are practiced separately. The focus of the diversity and development literature and practice seeks to change the individuals attitude in the direction of the expectation to attempt to create the effective understanding and tolerance among the people from the different economic, cultural and societal backgrounds. Wooten (2008) reflects that most of the multinational companies emphasise on the effective management of the diverse workforce including the women and employees of colour to gain the workforce benefits and to avoid the costs of the complexities related to diversity. According to Johnston (1991), Diversity is the co-existence of the employees from the different socio-cultural backgrounds in the workforce of the company including on the basis of the factors such as national origin, gender, ethnicity, education, lifestyle, disability, age, personality, physical appearance, beliefs and economic status etc. The organisations need to invest in the context of the employee development frequently to manage the multiple and diverse development needs among the employee to sharpen and develop the intellectual base of the employees to reach the fruitful positions in the marketplace through using then employees as the competencies (Megginson et al, 1999). Rothwell and Kazanas (2003) define the employee development as The employee development is associated with preparing the employees so that they can move with organisation as it develops changes and grows. Main discussion: The contribution of the HR managers in both contexts i.e. for employee development and managing the workforce diversity is very significant, in order effective survival and success of the organisation in the modern business world. Initially, we would focus on the role and contribution of the HR manager in the employee development through reviewing the various concepts and contexts. HR managers role for creating the opportunistic environment for the effective development through the self-learning practices is valuable (Comstock, 2004). The

employee self-learning and development is the significant concept, which is highly encouraged by the managements of the multinational enterprises through the initiatives such as empowerment, balancing the autonomy and command, offering flexibility, authority and responsibility etc. French (1999) defines the self-directed learning as An activity for which the learner takes initiatives and responsibility for the learning process. Thus, the role of the HR manager here for encouraging the self-directed learning to the people desiring and willing to take the initiatives, is very significant through which the learners learn through the experiencing, observation, practicing and even learning from the mistakes. Pribram and King (1996) reflect the slight guidance by the HR managers informally or formally triggers the potential of the learners to be sharpened into the talent and wider intellectual knowledge base. The role of the HR managers here seems to be critical to review, and recognize the people having the potential of the self-learning and then encouraging through the empowering and providing the autonomy, which would be apparently beneficial for both the employees and the organisation. The role of the HR managers guiding the individuals having the potential for the selfassessments and self-reviews is also quite considerable, where the informal support to the individual for building the goals collaboratively with the employee frequently and then providing the slight guidance for the assessments and evaluation of the individuals performance, improves the overall performance of the individual and of the organisation as well. Armstrong (2000) reflects that the role of the HR manager is very much valuable in the self-assessments of the individuals, when the managers comments avoid the confrontation i.e. total disagreement with the individuals opinions which can discourage the individual somewhere and the HR manager should ask the exploratory questions to the individuals. Apart from the self-learning and self-assessments, the effective adoption of the appraisal strategies according to the strategic fit between the organisational goals, and the values of the employees and the different performance appraisal approaches enables the effective development of the workforce. According to Lyster et al (2007), Performance appraisal is the formal and documented review of the individuals performance against the perfo rmance measures or the standards within the specific period. The appraisals lead to the two purposes and decisions 1) judgemental decisions; through which the appraisals act as the base for the decisions concerning with managing the pay, compensation, incentives, bonus, pensions and other such tangible rewards, 2) Developmental decisions: These associate with the intrinsic

activities such as career development, needs of the training & development recognition, succession planning and talent management etc. (Byars, 1979) CIPD (2005) disclosed some evidences in the research reflecting the high gap between the knowing and doing in the context of rewards and performance appraisal strategies i.e. very rare HR line managers have implemented the policies and practices in accordance to the evidences shown in the academic researches recommending the specific policies and practices having the high potential for outcome, and thus the HR managers need to take the initiatives to understand or bridge the gap between the policies & practices the academic evidences recommend and the HR managers have implemented in the workplace in their organisations. Thus in the context of the rewards, the role of the HR managers to associate the intrinsic rewards with the workforce development is also very significant. The effective approach of the HR managers as the appraisers to appraise the performance of the individuals (through the appraisals such as rating scale, confidential reports or essays, MBO, and 360 degree feedback etc) and recognize the needs of the training & development and coaching etc. also seems to be the sound perspective of the role and contribution of the HR managers for the developmental activities (Maddux, 2000). Shukla (2009)s statement seems to be sound that The skilled, talented and qualified workers are the most valuable asset of an organisation, and thus the role of the HR managers become very crucial and challenging to collect, sharpen & strengthen and retain the talent in the organisation for the effective development of the workforce. Golsmith and Carter (2010) reflects the value of the talent management through the statement that The talent management is the ladder to access the untapped pool o the talent. Shukla (2009) argues that the HR managers role to identify and recognize the talent or the potential for the talent in the individuals is also crucial. The role and contribution of the HR managers in building the knowledge based competencies is also considerable through the adoption of the concepts such as knowledge management, knowledge sharing, and knowledge workers etc. Gronhaug and Nordhaug (1992) claim that to grab a pioneer position and to gain the sustained competitive advantage, the HR managers must have a good capacity to retain, develop, organize and utilize the knowledge based competencies in the workplace. Knowledge management is associated with the continuous selection, implementation and evaluation of the goal-oriented strategies in order to improve the performance of the organisation.
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Knowledge sharing concept is also the developmental perspective in the workforce through which the knowledge is created, transferred or shared by the source of knowledge and acquired by the recipients and implemented for building the strong base of the intellectual power in the organisation. Here the role of the manager is also responsible for creating the opportunistic environment in the organisation for the effective knowledge sharing, creation and acquisition of the knowledge through linking the knowledge s haring with the recognition, intrinsic rewards and the incentives as well as to encourage the knowledge sharing culture in the organisation (Smith, 2005). The concept of knowledge worker is very significant in the context of knowledge management and the learning organisation. Elias and Awad (2004) reflect that the knowledge worker is the essential ingredient of the modern competitive economy and the statement seems to be sound because the knowledge workers are the responsible holders of the knowledge and when empowered and motivated through the intrinsic rewards, the knowledge workers can be utilized as the source of the sustained competitive advantage. The role of the HR manager in the context of the knowledge workers is very crucial because the HR manager must be capable to place the knowledge worker, where he/she seems to be strategically fit. The role of the HR manager is also crucial to utilize the talent and intellectual power or property of the knowledge workers through the effective motivation, empowerment, recognition and other such intrinsic rewards or the values effectively. (Smith, 2005) When the role and contribution of the HR managers is reviewed in managing the diversity in the organisation, it seems to be challenging and crucial role of the HR managers, however if effectively managed or adopted the diverse workforce, then it becomes the appreciative and supportive to the desire of the organisation to gain the sustained competitive advantage. ()s statement that the culturally diverse market place can only be effectively approached through the culturally diverse workforce, because the diverse workforce is more likely to understand the needs, demands and expectations of the culturally diverse market place, and thus it increases the level of satisfaction of the consumer markets. (Pollitt, 2006) Kirton and Greene (2010) reflect that the present organisations can be categorized into two categories on the basis of the approach to the workplace diversity, one having the proactive and the second one category of the organisations having the reactive approach, where the proactive approach enables the organisation to manage and adopt the culturally diverse workforce to gain the sustained competitive advantage through utilizing the talent of the diverse workforce. On the other side the organisations just having the reactive approach the
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workforce diversity are often limited to the lip service and some where adopt the diverse workplace as a showcase to avoid the costs of the diversity complexities, however today in the competitive business scenario, when the paradigm of the HRM has been shifted to the SHRM (strategic human resource management) and it has become very significant for the organisations to adopt and manage the diverse workplace to maintain the competitive edge. The role of the HR managers in this context needs to be very appreciative and supportive to manage the diverse workplace; however it is very challenging and thus needs the effective co-operation between the different managerial levels to adopt the workforce diversity effectively and competitively. (Kossek, 1996) Vender (2009) reflects that the globalisation, technological advancement and unionism etc. have triggered the demand of the talent, however the supply of the talent is comparatively very low, and thus the widening gap between the supply and demand of the talent is developing the potential for the war for talent. Secondly the young workforce is shrinking especially in the western countries. Thus, these such situations pushed the multinational organisations to focus on the diverse workforce proactively especially the women, aged workers, and the talent from the different ethnic groups, nationalities, migrants etc. Powell (2004) argues that the aged workers, however are the experienced, skilled and talented at some extent, but due to being temporary (for the short period till retirement) and part-time sometimes obstacles the organisations to be dependent on such type of workers. The second approach of the organisation to collect the talent from the different ethnicities however seems to be the sound approach, but the majority workers may be developing the threat of biasness with the minorities or the stereotyping etc. Here the role of the HR managers becomes very crucial to communicate the equal opportunities legislation to the workforce and to take the other initiatives to reduce the biasness with any minority worker groups etc (Bond, 2007). The approach of the multinational companies to focus on the women due to shortage of the talented workers seems to be sound, when a research discloses that the women are more capable in the numerical and financial planning skills, however in the most of the countries women are just managing the houses only. The research shown the surprising results that even in the expatriates employment, the women have been increased with a high rate. Thus, however it is challenging and very crucial, the HR managers in the multinational corporations especially highly need to adopt the systems, initiatives, policies and procedures to manage and adopt the workforce diversity to keep the competitive edge

maintained even under the influence of the shortage of the talent and the war for talent. (Comstock, 2004) The HR managers contribution in the context of equal opportunities is also quite significant, though the HR manager is responsible for managing and implementing the systems, procedures or the policies, through which the influences of the stereotypes and the biasness for the minority groups needs to be minimized or reduced, and the HR manager should be committed to provide the equal opportunities to the every work groups to be selected, developed, trained, and to be retained etc. However, the equal opportunities policies in the organisations have been covered by the legislation, in the UK, and most of the countries supporting to the disables, minorities, etc. the role of the HR manager here becomes more crucial and dichotomous, though they need to consider the organisational policies and the legal perspectives at the same time, although both are in the same direction to ensure the equal opportunities. (Kirton and Greene, 2010) When the diversity management and the development are linked to each other, the role of the HR manager again becomes more crucial, challenging, and significant and the HR manager must have adopted the collective approach for providing the equal opportunities to the all workers from the different backgrounds, origins, ethnicities, age, gender and colour etc. in the context of learning opportunities, opportunities to sharpen the talent, same training programmes according to the training needs, equally applicable talent management for the all employees. The HR manager must ensure that the all employees are equally given the opportunities for the knowledge sharing and knowledge acquiring. (Comstock, 2004) The role of the HR manager needs to be appreciative and supportive for the all workers equally while appraising the performances and at the time of taking the judgemental decisions to manage the rewards, compensations, pay, incentives, pensions and other tangible monetary rewards and the developmental decisions for the strengthening the talent, potential and intellectual knowledge property etc. The HR managers also need to ensure than the older worker are also given the same opportunities for the development and learning, where there are the high chances of the biasness with the older employees due to their temporary status or very close to the retirement etc. (Kirton and Greene, 2010) Conclusion:

It is apparent from the above discussion that the organisations having the proactive and effective approach to the diversity and develop at the same time are more likely to be pioneer in the industry and having well maintained the competitive edge. Though the diverse workforce is source of the competitive advantage if effectively and appropriately managed and adopted, when linked with the development, further polishes the talent and capability of the diverse workforce. Hence, while linking the diversity and development brings the role of the HR manager very challenging, but if effectively managed can be a source of the sustained competitive advantage. References: Armstrong, M. (2000), Performance management; key strategies and practical guidelines, Kogan page publishers, 2 nd edition (pp. 87) Bond, M.A. (2007), Workplace chemistry; promoting diversity through organisational change, UNPE publishers Byars, L.L. (1979), Readings and cases in personnel management, Saunders publishers CIPD (2005), Reward management; report on a one day conference by e-reward and Chartered Institute of personnel and development, CIPD publishers Comstock, D. (2004), Diversity and development; critical contexts that shape our lives and relationships, Thomson Brooks publishers Elias, A. and Awad, M. (2004), Knowledge management, Pearson education publishers (pp. 256) French, D. (1999), Internet based learning; an introduction and framework for higher education and business, Stylus publishers (pp. 16) Goldsmith, M. and Carter, L. (2010), Best practices in the talent management; how to worlds leading corporations manage, develop and retain top talent, John Wiley and sons publishers Gronhoug, K. and Nordhoug, O. (1992), Strategies and competence in the firms, European management journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, (pp. 438-444)

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