A REPORT ON DIVERSITY AT LOGICAL SOLUTIONS

Large corporations and governmental agencies can get system integration services from the information technology firm Logical Solutions. The owner of the business is interested in learning more about diversity policy and determining whether his business can use it. This report describes a diversity policy for Logical Solutions' Management Committee. Secondary qualitative data collecting is done to learn more about diversity policies and what other businesses are doing in this area. The study finds that most companies are formulating and implementing diversity policies to gain such advantages as a good public image, new customer classes, and to retain human resources. Nevertheless, implementation of a diversity policies may have some disadvantages. These include the huge expenditure that goes into the process, and the failure of management to put the policy into practice. It is recommended in the report that Logical Solutions adopts a diversity policy that puts the company’s commitment to maintaining a diverse workforce into writing. Second to this, Logical Solutions needs a good action plan that will make sure that the diversity policy’s goals are translated into real good changes and improvements in the company.



















Diversity Is Logical: A Report on Diversity at Logical Solutions

Introduction

Although definitions vary, diversity simply refers to human characteristics that make people different from one another. The sources of individual variation are complex, but they can generally be grouped into two different categories: those over which people have little or no control and those over which they have some control. Individual characteristics over which a person has little or no control include biologically determined characteristics such as race, sex, age, and certain physical attributes, as well as the family and society in which he or she is born. These factors exert a powerful influence on individual identity and directly affect how a person relates to others. In the second category are characteristics that people can adopt, drop, or modify during their lives through conscious choice and deliberate efforts. These include work background, income, marital status, military experience, political beliefs, geographic location, and education. It is important to note the distinction between the sources of diversity and diversity itself. Without this distinction, stereotyping tends to occur. To survive and prosper in an increasingly heterogeneous society, organizations must capitalize on employee diversity as a source of competitive advantage (Saxena, 2014). Logical solutions has made commendable steps in terms of having a diverse workforce. For there to be a large number of people from different racial and social groupings among the 250-people staff in the company, it is well on its way towards achieving a truly diverse company status. What is needed is a proper diversity policy that cements the status of the company as an equal opportunity employer.

Of the Logical Solutions staff approximately 60% come from households where English is not the only language spoken in the home or where it is not the main language spoken. There are approximately 40% women and 60% men in the work force and the age of employees range from 18 years of age to 60 years. Despite these evident aspects of diversity at Logical solution, the company still needs an official diversity policy. A diversity policy states the organization’s attitude to rights, equality, and diversity in the workplace (Knotter et al, 2012). It does not focus exclusively on issues of discrimination but instead concentrates on recognizing the differences between people. Knotter et al (2012) offer that a diversity policy differs from equal opportunity, which aims to legislate against discrimination, assumes that people should be assimilated into the organization, and, often, relies on affirmative action. By drawing up an official policy, the company is making a commitment to diversity that it can be held accountable for.

Objectives

The objectives of this report are as follows:

To clarify what a diversity policy is.

To give the advantages and disadvantages of a diversity policy.

To recommend whether a diversity policy should be adopted by Logical Solutions and what form would it take.

Methodologies

The methodology used in this study is secondary collection of qualitative data. There is a study of peer-reviewed literature to find out what has been advanced on the subject of diversity policy. Five sources are examined in this study. Besides, the report considers best practices by other companies in formulating and implementing diversity policies. The applicable findings from this study are used to make recommendations for Logical Solutions.

Information Analysis

Analysis of information in this report primarily takes the form of comparison. The approaches taken by different companies in formulating and implementing diversity policy are compared to find out the ones that are the most common and the ones that work best. Pieces of information obtained from the secondary data collection are also related in this report to establish the relationships between them, and the relationship between the findings and the kind of diversity policy desired by Logical Solutions.

Findings

An effective diversity policy is one that states a company’s diversity values and how it intends to put them into practice. Patrick and Kumar (2012) posit that with a diversity policy in place, there is evidence that the organization is serious about diversity in the workplace, and people are able to see this. It also helps people, especially in the human resource department to understand how they are expected to behave in terms of nurturing diversity. A proper diversity policy will paint the organization in positive light, helping to win new customers, especially from the public sector (who have statutory duty to promote equality) and other large organizations.

Most companies with an effective diversity policy are known to focus on two key aspects: positive action and diversity monitoring. Positive action refers to the taking of one or more specific initiatives designed to compensate for present or past disadvantages that have been caused by lack of diversity (Saxena, 2014). Typically, positive action initiatives encourage underrepresented groups to apply for jobs or promotions within the organization. Positive action may also be concerned with making changes to working arrangements to encourage retention of employees by making the environment more suited to the needs they have that differ from the majority of the employees. For instance, it was found that some companies launch recruitment campaigns in specific locations known to have a high density of ethnic minorities (Saxena, 2014). Part of the diversity policy may also encourage advertising in special media-such as gay and lesbian press, or introducing vocational training schemes open only to employees of a particular age bracket. Diversity monitoring, on the other hand, is the process of systematically collecting and analyzing data on the composition of the workforce, particularly with regard to recruitment and promotion. Logical Solutions has already made a significant step in diversity monitoring from mere recognition of the statistics relating to diversity in its workforce. The rationale behind monitoring is that it is impossible for managers to make an assessment of what action to take (if any) unless they are aware of the current situation.

When an organization like Logical Solutions takes on such a noble act as initiating a diversity policy, it will be placing itself in the leagues of compliant and proactive organizations. Having a written diversity policy with procedures and initiates in place to comply with some aspects of good practice recommendations makes the company duly compliant (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardy, 2016). The company then has to continuously monitor the outcomes of the diversity policy they will draft and assess its impact to become duly proactive. Currently, the fact that the workforce of Logical Solutions is seemingly diverse, albeit without a written diversity policy places the company at a minimalist organization status that is not desirable.

As part of Logical Solutions’ process of implementing a diversity policy, the company needs to recognize the elements of diversity- such as race, sex, and ethnicity-that tend to have a profound effect on how people relate to one another. They are several groups that researchers have found to be most likely to be left out of the corporate mainstream. A focus on these groups of individuals during implementation of the diversity policy will ensure a comprehensive reach in its impact. The first group for the company to consider is women. Currently, Logical Solutions has approximately 40% women and 60% men in its workforce. The company should endeavor to not only equalize this proportion, but also ensure that the women’s earnings mirror their rising participation trends. This is because of the research that indicates that women’s earnings at the workplace have not been rising in proportion to their increasing participation (Appendix 2). After falling to a low of 59% of male earnings in 1975, the female-to-male earnings ratio rose slowly and is currently about 73%, just 10 points above its level in 1920, when only 20% of women were in the labor force. Currently, over three-quarters of people who earn over $120,000 a year are men. Logical Solutions should be at the forefront of changing this narrative through the diversity policy.

Another class of people that need to be carefully considered during implementation of the diversity policy are the older workers. The present age of employees at Logical Solutions range from 18 years of age to 60 years. The distribution of the age of individual workers in this range needs to be made clear. The average worker globally is close to age 39 and is expected to reach close to 45 by the year 2022. 47% of employees are currently over the age of 40. Promotion of the diversity policy may incorporate programs that use the knowledge and wisdom of older workers to mentor the younger employees in order for the diversity to be progressive. Other groups of people that ought to be paid attention to in implementation of the diversity policy are African Americans, Asian Americans, people with disabilities, the foreign born employees, the gay population, Hispanic Americans, and religious minorities.

There are some disadvantages of the organization putting a diversity policy in place. First, it has been observed that some of the policies are sometimes not worth the paper they are written on (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardy, 2016). Just because an organization has a policy, it does not mean the policy is effective. Indeed, research by Gómez-Mejía et al (2016) has found that in majority of cases diversity policies not backed up with diversity practices, so therefore lack substance and have little impact in ensuring that diversity in the workforce prevails. The other disadvantage is that these formal policies may not prevent managers from finding ways to distort or evade procedure. Lastly is that even where managers are working within the procedures laid out in the policy, there is a huge amount of informal practice and discretion that means lack of diversity could persist.

Recommendations

Logical solutions needs to adopt both a diversity policy and an action plan. A policy on managing diversity recognizes that there are differences among employees and that these differences, if properly managed, will enable work to be done more efficiently and collectively. The organization should, first, form a taskforce charged with developing this policy. This taskforce could be designated as the management of diversity policy. This management should do the following:

Acknowledge cultural and individual differences in the company. It is stated that of the Logical Solutions staff approximately 60% come from households where English is not the only language spoken in the home or where it is not the main language spoken. There are approximately 40% women and 60% men in the work force and the age of employees range from 18 years of age to 60 years. This is a good starting point.

State that the organization values different qualities that people bring to their jobs.

Continually place emphasis on the need and importance of eliminating areas in the company that may potentially have diversity bias. These include selection of staff, promotion, and assessment of performance, remuneration, training and learning.

Focus attention on individual differences rather than group differences.

A policy will then be drafted in which the management of diversity policy will put the actions above into writing. Subsequent to this will be an action plan to ensure that the policy is actually implemented. An action plan takes the goals of the diversity policy and specifies the following:

What will be done to achieve these goals

Which senior person is responsible for each action

Deadlines and targets for achieving the goals

How breaches for the policy will be tackled and rectified

How success or failure will be measured

Timelines and frequency of reviewing progress.

A good action plan will make sure that the diversity policy’s goals are translated into real good changes and improvements at Logical Solutions. The management of diversity policy should make sure that all employees are familiar with the policy and action plan and how these will affect their work. This is particularly important for senior staff who are responsible for carrying out the action plan and the staff involved in recruitment, appraisal, and training.



























References

Gómez-Mejía, L., Balkin, D. & Cardy, R. (2016) Managing Human Resources. 8th ed. Essex, Pearson Education Limited.

Knotter, S., Lobel, R., Tsipouri, L. & Stenius, V. (2011) Diversity Research and Policy: A Multidisciplinary Exploration. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.

Patrick, H. & Kumar, V. (2012) Managing Workplace Diversity Issues and Challenges. Sage Journals, [Online] 2 (2), 1-15 Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012444615 [Accessed 29th September 2017].

Saxena, A. (2014) Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11 (1), 76-85.

Sharma, A. (2016) Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Cogent Business & Management Journal, [Online] 3 (1), Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1212682























Appendices

Appendix 1



Surge of Women in the Labor Force (Source: World Bank Open Data. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org )

Appendix 2



Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Source: World Bank Open Data. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org)