Managing Cultural Diversity Essay

The following paper brie y knock overs the rhetoric of managing mutation and considers whether managing novelty is a plain shape up to managing large number or a nitty-gritty of diluting adequate opportunities in UK organizations. With respect to the realities of the purposes in UK organizations, experimental data from a prospect of sixty UK human choice professionals and commonplace line bring offrs is presented. We commence a get along of cautionary questions, including what does it effect and to whom?By doing so we intend to encourage farther critical review and ch altogetherenges in respect to the concept of managing sort in organizations. Keywords Managing diversity, personify opportunities, HRM/D, rhetoric, reality existence Today the inventforce does not look, think, or act like any workforce of the past, nor does it hold the alike(p) values, have the same experiences, or pursue the same needs and desires (Jamieson and O Mara 1991). The composition of directly s workforce has changed signi cantly in toll of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, education, disabilities, and values.Running parallel to these changes is the shift in thinking by human option theorists and practitioners with regard to addressing get evenity in the oeuvre (Cooper and White 1995 Liff and Wacjman 1996). This shift is underpinned by the consequence of the rail line case argument for equal opportunities, as opposed to the persuasive debate for social justice or equal opportunities as correcting an imbalance, an injustice or a mistake (doubting Thomas 1990).There is now a view that, after twenty days of the stick of legal compliance (which has achieved little), the cultivated carrot of underpinning the business case for equal opportunities leave alone perhaps achieve more (Dickens 1994). The business case argument for equal opportunities in organizations is often termed managing or valuing diversity , but, as with most contemporary Human pick Develo pment International ISSN 1367-8868 print/ISSN 14698374 online 2000 Taylor & angstrom unit Francis Ltd http//www. tandf. co. uk/journals 420 Peer-Reviewed Articles anagement let ons, the underlying principles and interpretation of this concept atomic number 18 open to mass interpretation, criticism, and indeed misunderstanding. D. moth miller (1996) argues that the significant widening of the meaning of equal opportunities has brought with it more complex and confusing messages for employers and practitioners. By drawing on literature and empirical data, we consider whether managing diversity is a distinct approach to managing pot or a means of diluting equal opportunities in UK organizations and pose a number of cautionary questions, including what does it matter and to whom?By doing so, we intend to encourage but critique and challenges in respect to the concept of managing diversity in organizations. What is managing diversity? Thomas (2000) argues that, with the growing num ber of mergers and acquisitions, workforce diversity pull up stakes become more of a priority for organizations and, therefore, in the future, people will become clearer on what diversity is and how to manage it. As with the debates surrounding de nitions of human resource management and development (HRM/D), managing diversity as a concept means assorted things to divers(prenominal) people.It can relate to the issue of national cultures inside a multinational organization (Hofstede 1984) it can relate to the further development of equal opportunities or to a distinct method of integrating different parts of an organization and/or managing people strategically. Much of the literature regarding managing diversity relates to the US experience, where the concept is particularly popular a re ection perhaps of the more sound out diversity of workforce composition (Cassell 1996). In a recent report 1999), a Department of Education in the States described managing and valuing diversity as a key component of effective people management, arguing that it focuses on improving the carrying into action of the organization and promotes practices that enhance the productivity of all staff. Their dimensions of diversity include gender, race, culture, age, family/carer status, religion, and disability. The de nition provided also embraces a range of individual skills, educational quali cations, work experience and background, languages, and other relevant attributes and experiences which carve up individuals.