Introduction of Diversity: Opportunities and Challenges

1.You are required to look at tools used in the digital analytics industry (see workshop slides for examples), particularly the tools that have relevance to a particular professional role. You are encouraged to research how they are applied in business, to think about how these tools are used to inform decision-making.

2.In the second half of the assignment, you will reflect on your own expertise in digital analytics, and the demands of the industry, and therefore, formulate appropriate learning goals to develop those skills.

You may chose to focus on the skills required in an industry, or focus on the analytics functions of a future role. If you do decide to pick a role, it’s suggested that you pick one you are familiar with, such as your current role, or a career you are working towards.

Fulton Hogan Pty Ltd is Construction Company which does road works and this organisation is aggregate suppliers of construction materials. Fulton Hogan works in the construction and civil engineering field. Fulton Hogan has more than 50 senior-employees in Australia who work in Parkville, Victoria Australia. I am Consultant and I am going to prepare professional development workshop in Fulton Hogan on Diversity: challenges and opportunity. The target audiences of the workshop are the senior level employees. Fulton Hogan recruits the employees from Australia, New Zealand and many other countries as well. 

Diversity is the situation that includes representation of multiple groups within the workplace environment. There are various diversity traits which are enduring over the person’s lifetime and traits of diversity are associated with age, gender, race, sexual orientation, sexual orientation, cultural heritage and religious heritage. Some of the factors are acquired over an individual’s lifetime and these factors are changing and dynamic; factors are personal and professional experiences, political affiliation, citizenship, cultural background, educational background, socio-economic strata and adopted a faith. There are two types of diversity in the workplace; surface-level diversity and deep-level diversity. Surface-level diversity means the observable demographic and the differences are associated with the group, such as ethnicity, race, gender, physical abilities and age. On the other side, deep-level diversity in the workplace is associated with the demographics and the differences in psychological characteristics which are based on experiences and thinking styles. As stated by Madsen and Nielsen (2017), organisations with workplace diversity employ people from wide variety of backgrounds and the people have different characteristics, experiences and beliefs. The organisations get the advantage of a diverse workplace and these organisations are open to a plethora of ideas to further the businesses and better meet the desires of customers and employees. In this article, the authors further stated that some of the organisations follow monolithic organisational behaviour where the workforce is homogeneous which is composed of mainly white people. In addition, some of the organisations follow plural organisational behaviour where the workplace heterogeneous in nature. In this workplace, cultural backgrounds of the staffs are different and the HR departments recruit employees from a diverse background. In addition, multicultural organisations integrate members from minority and different ethnic background. Both majority and minority members are distributed within the organisation to make the workplace multi-culture.

Practical Activities of the Workshop

As opined by Guillaume et al. (2017), diversity within organisations ensures creativity and innovation which arise where the multi-culture workforce put their viewpoints. Diversify workplace makes possible the business to offer service and to appeal to large demographics. The employees from different background tend to make the workplace relatable and it will be easier to attract the employees from different background and culture. In this article; the author further commented that diversity helps the organisations to acquire high-level talent by showing the willingness to recruit the people (Kim et al. 2015). The talent pool can grow to represent businesses with the high opportunity of making the workplace more adaptable. The organisations can have the different cultures, religions and ethnicity to make the organisations more competitive. Therefore, the organisations can be more sustainable by employing workplace diversity in the global scenario.

According to Kundu and Mor (2017), diversity in the workplace can create an issue of acceptance and respect when the employees arise cultural conflict. When there is lack of acceptance of cultural diversity and beliefs among employees; it will create an issue. The author further stated that diversity in cultural, spiritual and political beliefs can pose a challenge in the diverse workplace. In Australia; aboriginal people live in Torres Strait Island and these people come to work in the Australian companies and they face the challenges to be recruited within the organisation. In the organisations, some people hold the prejudice against people to have different religions, the cultural and ethnic background of their own. In addition, there is some diversified aged group works within the organisation from teenagers and senior citizens. Social circles may be formed and some workers may be isolated from the team.

I am planning a workshop on ‘diversity: challenges and opportunities’ and the target audiences of the workshop are senior-level employees.  

The ideal size of the group for the purpose of the workshop will be 45 and I am going to arrange activities that will involve the participants as individuals. I am planning to do the workshop by segregating the team into 10-12 people and each of the group will perform the different activities.

The workshop will run for an hour as it is important that the goals of the workshop must be achieved.  I should try to block out the time for each part of the workshop in advance.

The objectives of the workshop are:

• To foster diversity through innovation
• To open global opportunities for the organisation  
• To improve organisational culture
• To provide equal opportunity to all employees

There are some of the activities that I have planned to use during the workshop.

Group discussion: I will segregate the overall 45 employees into 4 different groups. During the group discussion sessions, I will provide a single topic for the group and each of the groups has to discuss the given topic. When one group will discuss the topic; other groups will listen to the discussion. During the group discussion, the group members must have selected the reasonable set of objectives of the topic. I shall select the realistic schedule for the group discussion during the working hours. The topic of the group discussions will be given based on the workplace diversity. When the group discussion will conduct, the operational managers and HR managers will be present to listen to the views of the senior employees at the operational managers and HR managers have the wealth of experience and they are good communicators.   

Role play:  Role play will be conducted during the workshop and senior employees will be given to the roles of minority employees. Minority employees do not have all advantages in the workplace as they face an issue of ignorance and lack of respect from the majority of employees. During the workshop; the senior employees will be given the topic and they have to assume the roles that would be appropriate for the topic. The role plays will be done making the group of 2 or 3 people. Role play planning will be started by describing the specific situation and this situation will be given keeping in mind the positive goal. The senior employees will be invited and record the ideas for the solutions.

Case studies: During the workshop; the Operational Managers and the HR manager will tell the employees some stories about species diversity based incidents. Sometimes; workplace diversity based any videos will be shown about organisations from different countries. The senior employees need to watch these case studies to get the idea of workplace diversity and its challenges along with benefits. The main aim of the case studies during the workshop is to create a repository of teaching the cases with diversity context and spreading the awareness on the value of the case method in learning; especially management learning of diversity in Australia and global specific. The senior employees will be asked many of the diversity-based questions after listening to the cases and the workshop will set and propagate practice standards for the development and use of cases.  

Videos: During the workshop; videos will be shown to the participants based on the diversity and its challenges and benefits. Videos will be shown through the projector and topic of the videos will be the implication of diversity within various organisations. The length of the videos will be 10 to 15 minutes; after watching the videos; the senior employees need to write down some of the points that they will understand the topic. The sub-topics of the videos will be cultural diversity, workplace discriminations and indirect consequences of the discrimination and eradication of the discrimination.

Quiz: During the workshop; the participants will be asked about the workplace diversity and the laws regarding the workplace diversity. The quiz rounds will be like rapid-fire round where the short and multiple type questions will be asked of the participants. Senior employees will be given some of the materials to read and the senior employees will be asked short questions based on the workplace diversity.

Playing games: During the workshop; the participants will be given training on managing the workplace diversity. During the workshop; the participants will play ‘diversity games’ as it will find out the mental preferences of the participants. In the diversity games; 16-panel questions will be asked of the participants. After hearing the answers; the participants’ ability regarding the logical, analytical, interpersonal and emotional and holistic will be judged. In another game; the non-verbal activity of the participants will be judged through the face value. All the participants within the group will be given cards; however; they will not see their own cards. Without using the verbal clues; participants will treat each other based on the value of the card.  

Telling stories: During the workshop; the senior employees will be asked to tell the stories about their life experiences about workplace diversity. The participants will be asked to share the discussions like ‘witnessing diversity-related incivility in the workplace’. The participants will be asked to share the experiences which they have witnessed in the recent workplace or previous workplaces. The participants can share the stories in the groups and the hosts of the workshop will ask to clarify about how the diversity and discrimination affected the people and how did the employees react to the incidents. The managers can share during the workshop how the managers solved the workplace diversity. The senior employees will be asked about the different process of solving the situation. In addition, the participants will be asked to share the views about managing the diverse team and the expectations of the participants

When the workshop will be finished; the senior employees of Fulton Hogan will understand the importance of workplace diversity within the workplace. In Australian workplace; the implementation of right cultural diversity is very important as it will provide the benefit of working the employees together. The senior employees will be able to express the ideas of cultural diversity, identify the behaviour and actualise the practices to promote the social equity and justice. In addition, the senior employees will be able to articulate the concepts and exhibit the behaviours that help to cultivate the teamwork, communications skill and critical thought needed to function in diverse global community and workforce. After the workshop; the participants will be able to demonstrate techniques and they can utilise the experiences and videos to interrupt micro-aggressions and bias behaviour. This experience through the training will impact under-represented communities that can develop the skill-set aimed at increasing the social justice and workplace awareness, cultural competency and ally development. The senior employees will get to know that diversity means creativity in the workplace as the diverse workplace will bring about the different ideas and new ideas must be shared. The diversified workplace can help to serve better the customer base and clients. Senior management may come from the range of backgrounds that may have different experiences and it gives them a different understanding of another point of view. Fulton Hogan will open up towards a bigger pool of talent if they recruit diversified employees. The senior employees will have the clear idea about the diversity as they will have the training and diversity will bring innovation to the organisation. Diversity will improve organisational culture as different types of employees work together and provide equal opportunity to all employees. This workshop will produce effects on behavioural outcomes like displaying the support and engaging the mistreatment towards the marginalised minorities.

Reference List

Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Otay?Ebede, L., Woods, S.A. and West, M.A., 2017. Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), pp.276-303.

Kim, H.K., Lee, U.H. and Kim, Y.H., 2015. The effect of workplace diversity management in a highly male-dominated culture. Career Development International, 20(3), pp.259-272.

Kundu, S.C. and Mor, A., 2017. Workforce diversity and organizational performance: a study of IT industry in India. Employee Relations, 39(2), pp.160-183.

Madsen, M.B. and Nielsen, V.L., 2017. Does Gender Diversity in the Workplace Affect Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions?. International Public Management Review, 1(18), pp.77-115.