Management Diversity and equal opportunity Article

Management Diversity and equal opportunity - Article Example Valueing and managing diversity requires policies, procedures, relationships and practices that will ensure fairness and equality. (Rice K,2007) However on the other side the scope these diversities in the business environments can be made use to effectively improvise the organisation's performance. In totality, the success of an organization in adapting to the diversity would directly depend upon the equal distribution of opportunities in terms of responsibilities, benefits, career opportunities and personal respect among the team. Advancement in technology, travel options, communications and liberalization of international business regulations has incorporated numerous possibilities of conditions with diverse natures within the work environment. This trend was found to increase in the early nineties. The transference of a command driven economy to a market driven one, sheltered markets to competitive ones, domestic trade to international trade and the trend of monopoly to the trend of competition has extensively made possible the chances and demand of diversity in the business setup and processes involved. However these chances and demand are expected to have an upward trend in the coming years as well. In the modern business scenarios, diversity has been observed in the following areas. Cultural Diversity A modern definition of culture is "the shared ways in which groups of people understand and interpret the world (Fons & Charles 1997,p.3-4). A diversity in the interpretation and understanding as defined by Fons & Charles is being experienced in the human resources of business entities mainly due to the resultants of globalisation namely in- sourcing and out-sourcing. Moreover the policies on exchange of manpower among different nationalities promoted by the shortage of skilled manpower in many countries have led many companies to hire people belonging to different countries with diverse cultures. International educational opportunities are also increasing the availability of multi-cultural man power. The diverse understanding of business procedures and varied interpretation of management scenarios by this multi-cultural workforce adds complex cultural diversity to the work environment. Inter personal relationship The modern work groups hold much diversity in their inter-personal relationship attitudes. Although this may vary from person to person, the range of the diversity is much high with reference to the modern work groups which includes staff from different countries and cultures. Christopher & Diana (1996, p75) have mentioned seven factors concerning to the human relationships including time, space, odors, frankness, intimacy of relationships, values and expression of emotions. When an employee or a group from a particular part would insist on punctuality, others from different part of the globe would not pay much importance for time. Space is also viewed differently by different people. When some need to be close to their colleagues some others would prefer to keep a distance. Frankness is another factor which can bring in diversity in inter-personal relationships among the staff. High-context cultures are more frank than low-context cultures. (Lesikar R & Flatley M 2002,p.442). Intim acy among the